Dream Publication
This time I have an acceptance
from The New Yorker
in my dream.
“Yes, yes, but they must have had
subpar submissions this season,
pandemic and all; would’ve been in
a rush to be done with the issue anyway.”
My friendly neighbourhood
shubhchintaks* opine.
Morning.
I defile
incorporeal progenitors
over the sink,
foaming with rage
and toothpaste.
Mother wonders why
I keep waking up
on the wrong side.
*Hindi for “well-wishers”; often used sarcastically
Resurgence
You may preserve your trophy
embalming them
in beatific ignorance
of their true self.
The day they
slip the cocoon
is when you know
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the façade was foreskin
awaiting circumcision.
A Silent Street Sermon
His muffled growl, piercing gaze,
jeering smiles at intervals
signal a revelation, as if he has
gobbled Freud and Jung in one go
in one of his loafings around
the trash can behind the city library.
Content and undogly obese under the SUV
with the highest ground clearance in the street,
Dabbu sits more revered than most men
in my third-world neighborhood, inspiring
females of both species to flock
with offerings edible and carnal.
He never fails to astonish:
this morning his usual boastful barks
(emanating perhaps from the proud possession
of a better half never to be lured away
more than a street or so by
suitors howsoever well-endowed)
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replaced with an ascetic’s knowing calm which he
balances in equal measure with sheer devilry
as he breathes in the tantalising beauties
and dashing dudes of our gully, as if scanning
for infidelity and mocking the pathetic love lives
of God’s favourite children.
Replay
I prefer revisiting
old cricket clips on YouTube,
where India invariably win
nail-biting thrillers.
Diving into fate
foretold
is my safest solace.
Poets Anonymous
When strangers’ words
pierce private spots like
target-locked missiles,
souls you’ve never met
bleed verse to cauterise
long-deserted wounds,
you know you are
in good hands.
(Ankit Raj Ojha is a poet, former rock band frontman, and a former software engineer from Chapra, Bihar, India. He is an Assistant Professor of English with the Department of Higher Education, Haryana. He has a PhD from IIT Roorkee and he guest-edits Essence & Critique: Journal of Literature and Drama Studies (Bingöl University, Turkey). He is also a reviewer for Routledge and he co-edits The Hooghly Review. His work has been published and is getting published in seven countries at Johns Hopkins University Press, Routledge, Stanchion, Native Skin, The Dillydoun Review, Dreich, Ink Sweat & Tears, Roi Fainéant Press, and The Broadkill Review among others. He is the author of Pinpricks [Hawakal, 2022].)
