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Poem: The Turning Radius of Flowers

- Aditya Shankar


A man who loved
to paint flowers,
dreamt of wheels.

He didn't know why.

The dreams of flowers
must have been
about wheels,

about how  to rewrite
in bold black that
color is not an invitation,

that fragrance
is a construct of
the lover’s nose,

that a garden is
a pleasing lie.

In the flower’s dream,
the buzzing of
pleasure seeking bees

makes way for
dumping ground committees
of vultures.

The true stink of life, like
vulcanized tires burnt
in those garbage dumps.

The vultures resemble
young Karl Marx and co.

addressing the
downtrodden rats,
the wilted frogs,

listening out
the near-swat
experience of flies,

mosquito tales
on bloodless cities.

Along the food chains
that humans locked out
for lack of profit,

the vultures sit on a huge
mountain of waste,
the new God.

The flowers, wilted
and meaningless,

wakes up from their dream.


Bio Note: Aditya Shankar is an Indian poet, flash fiction author, and translator. His work has appeared in international journals and anthologies of repute, and nominated for literary awards. Books: After Seeing (2006), Party Poopers (2014), XXL (Dhauli Books, 2018). He lives in Bangalore, India. 

Instagram: adityan.s
Twitter: @suncave

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