Until All the Lights Go Out
Poetry by Sanket Mhatre
The last patch of sky in Andheri East
is a melting stream of plastic
Crimson blood flowing
through patches of dusted leaves
The streets are handcrafted with a mosaic of stubborn cultures
Where there was once an Earth are now
sutured roads sewn into the back of their skin – running into starving JCBs
Devouring the last known sediments from bruised intestines
Diversions everywhere
Trapping taxis in a fishing net
Endless brick games of docking – undocking
Played by those who have quit to reach home early
Numbers are new words
Statistics is pure literature
Data embedded into our bloodstream
while we un-think, podcast our mind
when everything blends into everything
there’s only darkness left
Andheri East doesn’t realize
that its sleeping in a belly of void
It’s only a matter of time
until all the lights go out
is a melting stream of plastic
Crimson blood flowing
through patches of dusted leaves
The streets are handcrafted with a mosaic of stubborn cultures
Where there was once an Earth are now
sutured roads sewn into the back of their skin – running into starving JCBs
Devouring the last known sediments from bruised intestines
Diversions everywhere
Trapping taxis in a fishing net
Endless brick games of docking – undocking
Played by those who have quit to reach home early
Numbers are new words
Statistics is pure literature
Data embedded into our bloodstream
while we un-think, podcast our mind
when everything blends into everything
there’s only darkness left
Andheri East doesn’t realize
that its sleeping in a belly of void
It’s only a matter of time
until all the lights go out
About the writer
Sanket Mhatre’s first book of cross-translated poems, The Coordinates Of Us, won the prestigious Raza Foundation Grant after being shortlisted at iWrite2020 at Jaipur Literature Festival. His poems have appeared in anthologies such as Indian Literature, Yearbook of Indian Poetry In English 2022, Shape of A Poem, The Well Earned, Home Anthology by Brown Critique, as well as literary magazines such as Punch, Borderless, Muse India, Madras Courier, The Usawa Literary Review, Men Matters Online and others. His second poetry collection titled A City Full Of Sirens was recently published by Hawakal. Learn more about Sanket and his work:
Instagram: @writeright.sanket Facebook: facebook.com/writetome.sanket X: @insanekeeda |