Desirable Havocs
Today, I will draw another equator
through the tropics of my easterly
betrayals. This ambivalence of my skin
—its desirable havoc, its sacred fire—
is where most of my stories are
born, and breathe, their air mingling
with yesterday’s leftover weather,
with the unruly human gardens where
I’ve withered and prospered like
some Old Romantic. With this new
equator, I shall move farther away
from home, but because the earth
is unrestrained and befuddling, find
myself even closer to home. A man
of stories and absentminded weather.
His body moving to the whims
of two desirous equators, accented
and etched like a faraway language.
Siddharth Dasgupta writes poetry and fiction from lost hometowns and cafés dappled in morning light. His fourth book—A Moveable East (Red River)—arrived in early '21. Siddharth serves as Creative Director with The Bombay Literary Magazine, but calls the city of Poona home. You'll find him on Instagram @citizen.bliss
Other Works
The Majority of Diners Continue Eating
by Robert Siek
... ignore the waiter’s ass and the fit of his pants, / his handheld pot of coffee, quite possibly a weapon ...
Ovule
by Mark Goodwin
... there among the blue / fragments of a planet’s shell // you saw a god ...