In the mornings, the city is almost indistinguishable from the city I knew 15 years ago, if you ignore some ugly new architecture. There are sparrows skipping on rooftops and sidewalks, morning walkers in monkey caps and woolen sweaters diligently pacing parks and pavements, sleepy schoolchildren emerging from their homes, the briefly opened front doors giving out a haze of filter coffee fumes and sambrani, the roads are empty and you can have a plate of steaming hot idly-vada for twenty rupees, a lot by the standards of 15 years ago, but surprisingly little for today.
Wednesday 28 August 2013
Tuesday 27 August 2013
Bean Town Blues
You will never leave the bean town
The old bean town
The plague mother will fold you
In her arms
The ghosts will caress your
Swiftly cooling flesh
The songs of the Minstrel
Will infect you
Infested, you will hear the ballads
Of the Eukarya
You will join with the Dancer
You will stumble through streets
Lined with glass towers
And fall through shadows
Into empty courtyards
Into forgotten lanes where
Cottages gather dust
You will never leave the bean town
I will not allow it
I am the Bangalorey man
And I will not allow you
To leave.
\See? You’re still here.
Monday 26 August 2013
death is in my lungs i think
it can't be everywhere
i can't be sensing that whiff
- sweet, cloying
over-ripe, nauseating
heavy in the nose
heavy in the lungs
heavy in the head
heavy in the air and in the gut -
everywhere
it can't be following me
it can't be that death is everywhere
and my dead always with me
it can't be me
it can't be me
it must be that death is in my lungs
and all i need to do to escape it
and all i need to do to escape it
is keep breathing
out
Tuesday 13 August 2013
I want to write a zombie novel, a novel that is devoid of all life but just keeps shambling on, consuming the life force of all literature it comes into contact with until there is nothing but zombie literature, zombie poetry, zombie drama, zombie non-fiction, zombie memoirs on every shelf and every ebook reader everywhere. But I think it's already been written and you've already read it.
Friday 9 August 2013
I think I know why
the idea
of an afterlife
is so persistent
It's not for ourselves
I think anyone can
contemplate their own
extinction
calmly
if they take a moment
to think about it
and anyway when it
happens
we're done and that's all
no, the afterlife
is so that our knowledge
of everyone else's death
can be put aside
the afterlife
is so that
you can lose a child
or a lover
or an enemy or
anyone else
(I don't mean misplace
but lose to death)
the afterlife is so you can
lose these
and not lose yourself
(of course I mean
the idea of the afterlife
of course there is no
afterlife
of course we are all
lost)
the idea
of an afterlife
is so persistent
It's not for ourselves
I think anyone can
contemplate their own
extinction
calmly
if they take a moment
to think about it
and anyway when it
happens
we're done and that's all
no, the afterlife
is so that our knowledge
of everyone else's death
can be put aside
the afterlife
is so that
you can lose a child
or a lover
or an enemy or
anyone else
(I don't mean misplace
but lose to death)
the afterlife is so you can
lose these
and not lose yourself
(of course I mean
the idea of the afterlife
of course there is no
afterlife
of course we are all
lost)
Thursday 8 August 2013
all week I've been going for 3-4 hour walks, stopping at parks and cafes, just rambling around mostly in the cantonment area
I want to be indistinguishable from the city
a sparrow contemplating kamaraj road while the newspapermen sip tea
i want to be the bangalorey man
to walk through shivajinagar and turn aslant and find myself in blackpilly
slip through a shadow and stroll down east parade
oh and further back
i want to find a terrible secret at the city's heart
want to go even further back and find a wonderful truth soaked into this land
and further, furthest, i want to walk in empty space forever right here
don't follow me
I want to be indistinguishable from the city
a sparrow contemplating kamaraj road while the newspapermen sip tea
i want to be the bangalorey man
to walk through shivajinagar and turn aslant and find myself in blackpilly
slip through a shadow and stroll down east parade
oh and further back
i want to find a terrible secret at the city's heart
want to go even further back and find a wonderful truth soaked into this land
and further, furthest, i want to walk in empty space forever right here
don't follow me
Saturday 3 August 2013
Thursday 1 August 2013
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