THE FOLLOWING POEM WAS SELECTED IN WINGWORD POETRY PRIZE 2023 LONGLIST.
Angāra→ I love you●
The factory gate declares
to a busy, indifferent road
In fresh white brushstrokes against
Brown fungal walls stinking of rotted garbage and urine.
Algae frame those larger-than-life words.
The letters are all
in upper case – uneven; smeared
on the layer of powdered rust upon the Iron Gate - sticking
against hope; weighed down
by the diligent dusts of traffic jams.
The painter must be going somewhere –
home perhaps,
after frugal dinner and ample drink,
finishing off the residual paint
on a daunting factory gate; his friends
goading his unsteady fingers to declare
to the world his freedom
to love, a blooming lotus
amid muddy swamps.