Nothing is Missing
Arranged beauty, a vanishing self. Silent guns in the corner reveal an…
Read more →
From Matchbox
Matchbox – May ’25
Saraswati Puja
Golden desires and ancestral earth scents converge, surrendering to a luminous, turmeric-stained night.
May 15, 2025
filled with golden stalks of grain,
the intoxicating spring winds
hover in the afternoon harvest of desires.
I smell of earth,
escaping from the corridors of ancestral memories,
offering flowers to celestial effigies
of Brahma’s daughter.
I see her,
sitting with folded hands in the pink marbled light,
consumed by itself.
remember me like a child who knows nothing—
I melt at the edge of blossoming spring,
weaving threads of my own pastoral body,
anticipating the ecstasies of seasons,
age after age.
beams of floral sunlight shiver
in the shifting flame of joys like young lovers,
stealthily studying scripts of flowering botanical love
in the crowded pandals.
I slowly breathe the molten afterglow,
surrendering to autumnal rapture
between her eyelashes.
I wait for the night—
a girl in a black satin dress,
smudges of turmeric on her brow,
silently vanishing into my luminous dusky skin!
(for Bina Sarkar di and her memories of Saraswati Puja)
📖
PART OF A COLLECTIONKolkata, Longing & Belonging and 4 other poems
View Full Collection →
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.