crushing the sponge of a cake against the

caving palate my banana leaf plate tongue

lets its black tip drill up bruised countries

to lick the nebulous scars of a brain blight

in a flying wish I'm god arming villagers

entering the jallianwala garden / in another

I'm the villager firing at god // I swallow

strepsils like setting sun wetting my throat

of fire in the afterglow of waking up // we

chant fables fed into the database of eyelids

we think jeans we snake charm / I dream we

stink genes / this protein snake coupling root

ing us from falling to grace we bisleri bride

[ don't buy if the seal is broken ] we troll we

scroll we boomerang instagrammar real cool

out of focus hocus pocus we are prone to

accents on the highway of voicy noises under

construction // we new nation mujra a b'wood

item number to arouse the old country into

death / but these wrinkles on the map won't

leave us in all fairness // we gunshot gandhi

twist his ashes into flypaper butterflies chasing

traitors pollinating the country orchards / we

think I am eighteen on thin ice [ but I am that

only it seems ] pining avalanches at the sight

of my first snow / the mud on the lotus / I am

a locus of points / I love / I gather butterflies

I let the monday sun cough on my shoulders

& sundays I let them have cake on my tongue

~ Ajay
3/5/2020