Nothing is Missing
Arranged beauty, a vanishing self. Silent guns in the corner reveal an…
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From Matchbox
Matchbox – May ’26
Ruins of Ruins
Where monk-grey pillars and collapsing stone flesh echo the terracotta soldiers' search for lost beauty
May 28, 2026
A pillar, monk-grey, still standing,
while the slumbering flesh of stone collapses
into the slow erasure of desire.
Hannah whispers—
verses submerged beneath Heidegger’s aging skin,
where existence rusts and rots
like warring nations laundering their sins.
They smoke their secrets through charcoaled memory—
eyes dripping with extinction memories.
Night thickens inside their freckled bodies,
underground terracotta soldiers searching their pockets
for dead bougainvillea.
Is this the unconscious history of violence,
or the repressed rage of toy tyrants?
Everything burns here, even the dust of moon.
📖
PART OF A COLLECTIONThe Night, a Naked Knife and 4 other poems
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Ashwani Kumar
Ashwani Kumar is a poet, political scientist, and professor whose work has been widely published, anthologized, and translated into several languages. His poetry collections include My Grandfather’s Imaginary Typewriter, Banaras and Other Poems, and Map of Memories, and he is also the author of the acclaimed non-fiction work Community Warriors. He has edited major poetry anthologies, including Rivers Going Home, Scent of Rain, and River of Songs, co-founded the Indian Novels Collective, and edits the Hummingbirds Poetry Series in partnership with Red River. He was also a chief editor of Global Civil Society at the London School of Economics. He has held visiting appointments at leading international institutions, including Heidelberg University, the Korea Development Institute (KDI), and the German Development Institute (DIE). He also writes for publications such as The Indian Express, The Hindu, Financial Express, Outlook India, Scroll, and The Print. He lives in Mukteshwar and Mumbai.