Dream Publication?

This time I have an acceptance ?
from The New Yorker?
in my dream.?

“Yes, yes, but they must have had?
subpar submissions this season,?
pandemic and all; would’ve been in?
a rush to be done with the issue anyway.”?
My friendly neighbourhood?
shubhchintaks* opine.?

Morning.?
I defile?
incorporeal progenitors?
over the sink,?
foaming with rage?
and toothpaste.?

Mother wonders why?
I keep waking up?
on the wrong side.?

*Hindi for “well-wishers”; often used sarcastically?

Resurgence

You may preserve your trophy?
embalming them?
in beatific ignorance?
of their true self.?

The day they?
slip the cocoon?
is when you know?

the fa?ade was foreskin?
awaiting circumcision.?

A Silent Street Sermon?

His muffled growl, piercing gaze,?
jeering smiles at intervals?
signal a revelation, as if he has?
gobbled Freud and Jung in one go?
in one of his loafings around?
the trash can behind the city library.?

Content and undogly obese under the SUV?
with the highest ground clearance in the street,?
Dabbu sits more revered than most men?
in my third-world neighborhood, inspiring?
females of both species to flock?
with offerings edible and carnal.?

He never fails to astonish:?
this morning his usual boastful barks?
(emanating perhaps from the proud possession?
of a better half never to be lured away?
more than a street or so by?
suitors howsoever well-endowed)?

replaced with an ascetic’s knowing calm which he?
balances in equal measure with sheer devilry?
as he breathes in the tantalising beauties?
and dashing dudes of our gully, as if scanning?
for infidelity and mocking the pathetic love lives?
of God’s favourite children.?

Replay?

I prefer revisiting?
old cricket clips on YouTube,?
where India invariably win ?
nail-biting thrillers.?

Diving into fate?
foretold?
is my safest solace.?

Poets Anonymous?

When strangers’ words?
pierce private spots like?
target-locked missiles,?

souls you’ve never met?
bleed verse to cauterise?
long-deserted wounds,?

you know you are?
in good hands.

(Ankit Raj Ojha is a poet, former rock band frontman, and a former software engineer from Chapra, Bihar, India. He is an Assistant Professor of English with the Department of Higher Education, Haryana. He has a PhD from IIT Roorkee and he guest-edits Essence & Critique: Journal of Literature and Drama Studies (Bing?l University, Turkey). He is also a reviewer for Routledge and he co-edits The Hooghly Review. ?His work has been published and is getting published in seven countries at Johns Hopkins University Press, Routledge, Stanchion, Native Skin, The Dillydoun Review, Dreich, Ink Sweat & Tears, Roi Fainéant Press, and The Broadkill Review among others. He is the author of Pinpricks [Hawakal, 2022].)