Highway in Madagascar
From a shed by a highway,
parents feigning smiles
under tattered straw hats sell vegetables.
On wooden racks lining
bitumen’s edge, children sit
facing a rain-eaten hill face.
Backs to roadkill or dreams—
alive with flies,
festering under the noon sun,
flattened by lorries filled
with people heading to Tana.
In the palm leaf sky
over the shed,
a hidden constellation appears—
tongue stickier than tar
pulling in a moth or a butterfly.
Snap.
Snap.
Eyes rotate on different axes,
in different directions.
Biswadarshan Mohanty's works have appeared in Constellations, Chestnut Review, Quadrant, The Tiger Moth Review, Verandah Journal, and others. A recent Pushcart nominee, he is from India and is yet to put down roots anywhere. Having moved to numerous cities and countries, he has found a home in his imagination. He is a graduate of Master of Arts in Writing and Literature from Deakin University.
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