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Highway in Madagascar

By Biswadarshan Mohanty
Spring 2023 | Poetry

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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