Questions I ask myself
If you could be equal
in an unequal world,
where would you plant
your feet?
On a floor that slips
with alarming regularity,
or a place
where holding your ground
requires
everyday battles?
Whose hand
would you hold?
Would you get ahead
or stay back?
Would you bend
to pick up the remnants
or will you leave
without a trace,
all the lives
that have held place
for you?
Remnants
The kiosk is run by a lady who opens shop at 7 in the evening everyday. In the corporate world, she may have won accolades for her punctuality. But here, there’s only the haphazard queue of auto drivers, cab drivers, and daily wage labourers that squat on plastic stools and eat, perhaps their first meal of the day. She has always been generous with her portions.
Now, there is only a dark pool of oil that her kerosene stove has spilt.
Kiosks don’t qualify for essential services.
moonbow
no omens for the future
in sight
*Forthcoming in a book of haibun published by Red River
Blur
Home chores stretch
between walls
into predictable loops.
Work piles
cloud after cloud
and splashes
into a pot of milk
that has just boiled over.
At night
they come together
like angry lovers,
each, incomplete,
promising
to draw their boundaries
firmer
the next morning.
Shobhana Kumar has two books of poetry and six works of non-fiction covering industrial and corporate histories. She works in the spaces of education, communications and social work. She is Associate Editor of Sonic Boom and its imprint, Yavanika Press. She is deeply influenced by haikai writing and her book of haibun, A Sky Full of Bucket Lists is forthcoming by Red River. She is part of The Quarantine Train, a poetry workshop founded by Arjun Rajendran. She works in the spaces of corporate communication, branding & advertising, education and social work.