A Bridge Collapsed

I

In the middle of the night
I might belong 

To the silence 
Of the quiet people 
Sleeping 

Ikigai.
Says to sigh less
And live longer -
I don’t 
*

Something escapes
In the blood letting
When the light caves 
The breathing comes sharp.

II

Photographed files 
Setting memory outside
Like it’s a place
And not life looking 
Through its gossamer sensations
Of a lived reality
Because 
I remember that sky
With the flames rising
Eating the clouds
Lashing
Up to eternity
And there is nowhere to run
When doom comes knocking
No shuttered windows
No stone walls
Can keep it from
Devouring
But I grow sentimental
When I have seen
What I had known
With a cruel certainty
Was the end of a blissful
Meaning 

III

I push this page further
                      from under my thumb
It is the same skin
the same working body
I think,
not much has changed
The male of the clan
deny involvement
from clipping your nose
to pretend she is playing
I recall,
Mother
She is grasping, for attention
lying flat
The sofa in front of the TV
this exaggerated character 
   arrested chest
labours to fill a breath
A pain sears through the memory
I remember,
                           the word diaphragm.



This Forest is your Ancestor

The wind turns
Inwards into its cloud composition
Becomes density
Collecting
Charred remains
of rejected belief
The talk of the town
is Muscle
Packed Protein
These boys who won’t fuck Feminists
Or not to be fucked with
Wit
at par with humour 
shakes inside our bones
Grilled and smoked
ashes clogging arteries
Has time distanced from
innervated death.

This bony bird has changed colours,
It reminds me of that empress man
standing stick and tall over the village –
And I know his names in three tongues.

About the Author:

Sumedha Shukla is an independent writer and artist based in India. She is known for using artistic mediums as feminist interventions. Sumedha shifts with all the colourful people, places, and languages that move her. Her articles have previously appeared in India’s youth publications. This is her international poetry debut. For more, you may find her on Instagram or X @svamedha

Feature image by CHUTTERSNAP on Unsplash