LITERATURES FROM THE WORLD
Rahman Baba: The Poet of Mysteries
Virtually unknown in Italy, Abdul Rahman Baba is one of the most loved and revered poets among the Pashtuns from Pakistan and Afghanistan.
He...
WORDS FROM IRELAND
June Caldwell – Upcycle: an account of some strange happenings on...
It is hardly worth telling, this story of mine, or at least in a modern context, because so many people go through the same...
Lauren Foley – Hot Rocks
Seaside village, North County Dublin, Ireland, 1993
Her first boyfriend used to kiss her after coffee and oranges. It was a strange taste. But she...
LATEST
FACING EAST
G. Gopikrishnan
G. Gopikrishnan (born in 1990) is an illustrator based in Kerala, India. He earned a BSc in Chemistry from Kerala University. He has developed his own visual vocabulary and inimitable style. His illustrations combine...
Rishi Dastidar – A leopard parses his concern
I am concerned about Claudia Cardinale.
By ‘concerned’ I mean ‘in lust with’.
By ‘in lust with’ I mean ‘I sigh for’.
By ‘I sigh for’ I mean ‘my eyes are hungry for her when she appears...
Rishi Dastidar
Rishi Dastidar was born in London in 1977. His poetry has been published by the Financial Times and BBC amongst many others. He is a fellow of The Complete Works, a consulting editor at The Rialto magazine,...
Ra Sh – The Narcissist
All his mirrors were women.
They displayed him with breasts
and vaginas and flesh buds.
Desperate,
he approached a blue lake
to see his male splendor.
His cock-a-doodle-do
his rippling muscles
his all knowing gaze
commanding brow.
The lake called him `Sister!’
and drowned him...
Ra Sh – Andro and Estro
Androgen and Estrogen
met over a cup of Energen.
You know how macho
Androgen is.
And how feminine
Estrogen is.
Androgen complained:
These males are horrible
a little extra of me and
they turn rapists.
Estrogen complained:...
THE STONE
Claire Loader – Qetesh
A goddess sits at the end of my bed,
visits these nights of waking.
Where thoughts run
more than fingers, hands wary
of the divide.
Instead we turn...
TWO-TONGUED SEA
Chandramohan Sathyanathan – A Posthumous Letter
I am a primate
dwelling in the wild forests
of my language.
My tongue lost irretrievably
in the swamp of hunger,
I hide amidst the barren rocks.
Your own selfie
sheds...
Chandramohan Sathyanathan
Chandramohan Sathyanathan alias Chandramohan S. (b.1986) is an Indian English language Dalit poet based in Trivandrum, Kerala. He has been published in many magazines...
Rino Cavasino – A pin with a butterfly
I wrote in my mother’s tongue, and not even
she could understand, but what she listened to
sounded Arabic Turkish German to her.
Each letter, each...
Rino Cavasino
Rino Cavasino, born in Trapani (Sicily) in 1972, studied in Urbino and lives in Florence, where he works for the Ministry of cultural heritage....
Heiko H. Caimi – Mother, tongue
Mother, mother
how much you are tongue to me
how much language is to me my mother
blending strong with soft, soft words
immeasurably true
in their...
Sudeep Sen – Language
My tongue was born promiscuous
speaking in many languages,
my heart speaking another, my head
yet another — in seamless translation.
Auricles, ventricles perennially pump
circulating body’s...
Riccardo Duranti – Voice at a crossroads
Wind driven, the voice is at a crossroads:
flushed from their nests in the dark delta
between the two roads
suddenly words flutter up.
In small flocks they...
Barbara Ungar – Your Mother Serves Tongue
How could you
put another creature’s tongue
into your mouth? How could you
bite, chew, swallow?
Cannibal. Obscene.
How could you
tell the difference
between a cow’s tongue and its delicious
rump?...
Franco Buffoni – Mothers’ Tongues
For three years here in Rome I’ve had a partner
From Turkey, a Kurd.
Communist, tortured in jail,
He knows men and wolfs down life, when he...
