'retributions'

My long poem, 'retributions', is published with a sound recording online at the87press Hythe.

A veritable rhizome of energies, dialogues, silences and responses form the root system to this poem. Part of an ongoing correspondence with Nisha Ramayya, it takes its cue from Sutapa Biswas' Housewives with Steak-Knives, 1985, to work through some stakes of ethnonationalism in global arenas and domestic spheres - particularly regarding Hindutva.

But on the flipside of animating (brown) feminist rage, is the coagulation of harm or violence in or through the flesh of us, the weight of the nightmare upon one's body. Which is what i found myself trying to write towards, August 2022 on vacation in the woods of Galloway, Scotland - thinking about the subterranean energies of coppiced woodlands (trees felled for timber for war) that have outlasted centuries; and, conversely, the queer city beneath the city, the one where we found our lives and loves but was shortly after flattened for economic development.

There's much more to add, but for now the text and audio is in the bio. Read it landscape on your phone.
If you're listening, you'll meet me in the karaoke booth.

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Image: Sutapa Biswas, Housewives with Steak-Knives, 1985, Bradford Museums and Galleries.