Lines

Mumbai. formerly Bombay,
2017 A.D.
the city of a breathing sea
divided invisibly
mutilated river
drying dead
third world fellow countrymen
smoking beedis
walking subways
of Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus
constant dystopia
first world slavery
new bridges
link roads
gaps of lines
between the sea
poverty cries
in close cloisters
slum dwellings
five year old selling chai
eighty year old, agarbattis
the Haji Ali and Mahalakshmi
lay aligned
the gods are not intolerant
dusty dusk
scatterings shadow
strings of yellow streetlights
unseen stars
lurking in the cold
beneath its warmth.

By Sneha Subramanian Kanta

Biography:

Poetry editor for her university magazine INK and a GREAT scholarship awardee, Sneha Subramanian Kanta is pursuing her second postgraduate degree in the United Kingdom. Her work has appeared or is to appear in 7×20 mag, The Rain, Party & Disaster Society, Epigraph Magazine, Thumb Print Magazine and in poetry anthologies such as Dance of the Peacock (Hidden Brook Press, Canada), Suvarnarekha (The Poetry Society of India, India) and elsewhere.