Autophony

कभी पराये की पीड़ा भी अपनी हुआ करती थी। आज जो मिट गया है दर्द, अपने भी पराये हो गए।।

I come at last to a wanderer's grave, My sexton is the vulture's jaw; He'll bury me by the wanderer's law In open field or cloistered cave. The buzzing flies will make up my shroud, As the wind howls my death lament. While I convulse through my last torment, They chant my rites clear and loud. The vagrant at last shall come to stay, In the maggot's fattening zest. May I think I've found eternal rest As my tissues ferment away? But for peace I shall pray in vain, For my bones roll on upon the plain. (Published in GloMag, December 2015 p72)

On the way to saying it, I find that the snake eats pineapple and that the tiger eats bread, the butterfly writes a book and your horse eats salt and that I have a pink plate, the last one quite unexpected. I’m so far não entendo but eu trabalho , I am still working on it. Desculpe, desculpe , I know I will get there They’ve got me to perdemo você and oh how would they even know I miss you, how would they? On the way we get to eu quero você - of course I want you - and then they let me say it: for now and forever - eu amo você Published in  GloMag February 2017 , ed. Glory Sasikala; Cyberwit.net, Allahabad, 2017. ISBN: 978-93-85945-78-6.

Rohini, Paresh and yours truly are happy to announce the release of the second volume of our journal of flash fiction, poetry and haibun, Narrow Road. Featuring authors from the Philippines, India, Denmark, UK, Canada and the USA, this was our first issue with open submissions. You can read the journal here: https://issuu.com/narrowroad.mag/docs/narrow_road_vol_2_august_2017