Carefully Cutting
Across the open courtyard in a halo of yellow light the old woman sits eating her lunch, carefully cutting apart her meal, making the most of each morsel, chewing over what has been: children, husband, parents just a faint taste, nothing to say, eating alone under a yellow light. Later she shuffles past windows, a flickering image on film, a grainy reflection of my wife without me. The Goat Knows The goat knows it is the festival of Dashain in Kathmandu: time to die in thanks to Maa Durga for defeating the buffalo- demon Mahishasura after ten days of fighting. But the goat is no hungry Hindu, its legs speak of living stubbornly sticking out into the gutter. The goat's owner, a boy with a mischievous grin, wishing for Maa Durga’s ten arms, tugs, tugs, tugs at the leash. The goat's head nods in the image of agreement to the wisdom of the Bhagavad Gita, but the legs knows better: the head will soon be sliced off, stuck on a table, tongue sticking out, tasting the lies of goat afterlife, blood running in the gutter. So the legs keep battling with the heart of a buffalo and the boy tugs, tugs, tugs with all ten of his imaginary arms and suddenly wins, dragging the goat up onto the pavement, off to meet its maker and make Maa Durga happy. Published in The Brasilia Review, March 2017.
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Poetry Biography:I have had over 70 poems published in the following worldwide magazines and literary journals: A Handful of Stones, Acta Victoriana (Canada), All the Sins (UK), The Amethyst Review (USA), Amsterdam Quarterly (NL) The Blue Nib (Ireland), Bolts of Silk, Borderless Journal, The Brasilia Review (Brazil), Bushfire Literature & Arts Review (US), Cadenza, Cake Magazine, Carillon, Cha: An Asian Literary Journal (Hong Kong), DASH (USA), Clackamas Literary Review (USA), Cooch Behar Anthology, Dawntreader, Dreamcatcher, The Dillydoun Review, Earth Love, The Ear (US), Eastlit (East Asia), Erbacce, Envoi, Finger Dance Festival, Ginosko, Gloom Cupboard, Hidden Channel, Inlandia Journal, IS&T (Ink, Sweat & Tears), Into the Void (Canada), The Journal, The Lakeview Journal (India), Lothlorien Poetry Journal, Lunch Ticket (USA) The New Writer, One Hand Clapping, Orbis, Oregon English Journal (USA), The Passage Between, Prole, Sentinel Literary Quarterly, Sonic Boom (India), Third Wednesday (USA), Of Nepalese Clay (Nepal), New Contrast (South Africa), One Hand Clapping, Opportunity Publishing, The Oregon English Journal (USA) Origami Poems Project (USA), The Paddock Review (USA), Panoplyzine (USA), Paper Swan Press, The Passage Between, The Peacock Journal (USA), Pens on Fire, Poetry Salzburg (Austria), Potomac Review, (USA) Prole, Pulsar Poetry, Rear View Poetry, Queen Mob's Teahouse, Qutub Minar Review (India), Red Ink, Shiela-Na-Gig (USA), South Bank Poetry Magazine, Stand, Waterford Teachers Centre, (Ireland) We Are a Website New Literary Journal (Singapore), Weber - The Contemporary West Review (USA), Windfall (USA), Writing Magazine, Words for the Wild and Verbal Art (India). Archives
March 2024
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