Earth calling and 1 other poem
Water-winged desire navigates transnational ecofeminist borders through currents of solitude and longing,…
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From ULR
Issue 7 – Environment
Earth calling
Earth's wild spirit, a river, defies all, flowing free, bowing only to the primal Mother
June 15, 2022
She sat stitching a river
along hems, fraying with myths
of going underground
The silt doesn’t breathe
sits by the edges,
bakes mud cakes of journeys
a return gift for
the delta
Pebbles caper
roll
pause
for
a
breath
in a brook,
pluck rainbows
on their way,
no rush for gold
but
rocks grow bolder
Rocks don’t hold water
they try
pry
skirt the issue
roll
tumble
roll
along the rush downstream
tear her sides
reckless
with gravity—
She dances along
in her frenzy
discomfiting sages
across ages
beyond a curse
to tone down
bow and bend—
She does that
just that
only for the Mother.
First published in The Mud Proposal in the 57th Issue of Kaurab.
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Barnali Ray Shukla
Barnali Ray Shukla is a writer, filmmaker and a poet. Her writing has featured in Sunflower Collective, OutOfPrint, Kitaab.org, OUTCAST, Madras Courier, Bengaluru Review, Indian Ruminations, Vayavya, The Brown Critique, Kaurab, Usawa Literary Review, Gallerie, Anthology of Contemporary Indian Poetry II, indianculturalforum.in, Indian Quarterly, The Punch Magazine. Modern English Poetry by Younger Indians [SahityaAkademi], The World That Belongs to Us [Harper Collins, India], Have a Safe Journey [Amaryllis, India] Side Effects of Living [Speaking Tiger], Hibiscus [Hawakal Publishers], Open Your Eyes [Hawakal Publishers], The Kali Project (Indie Blu-e Publishing], Borderless [Singapore], Voice & Verse [Hong Kong], UCityReview [USA], A Portrait in Blues [UK], Centre for Stories [Australia]. She has one feature film to her credit as writer director, three documentaries and two short films, a book of poems, Apostrophe. [RLFPA 2016]. She lives with her plants, books and a husband in Mumbai. Her next feature film, titled Joon, is expected to release this monsoon.