view from the vista
“From The Depth”. Art: Sanjay Basak
‘there are a million other things / you could do besides breathing / the outside air, / asbestos and apathy / make a heady cocktail’
have you ever placed stone
on stone, shovelling hard-
hearted sand and cement mixing
mortar, an opaque mask
over your eyes; lay the bedding,
butter up one end, look for light
colours, aqua
beige and white, stone cold;
keep your distance
they are but a pantone of pain
white-hot warmth
outside your wall
gasping for breath;
have you tried not giving a flying
fugue, a dissociative state, an inability to remember
one’s past; ones past are beyond
your line of vision, over the curvature
of earth, across hemispheres and continents
the wall is a shield, vaccinating
firewalls, newsfeeds on fire, maelstrom
of misery, thermal reactions,
oxygen and cremation pyres,
and lack thereof;
there are a million other things
you could do besides breathing
the outside air,
asbestos and apathy
make a heady cocktail;
suffocate in your safety
until there are no more breaths
to waste.
***
Karan Madhok is a writer, journalist, and editor of The Chakkar, whose creative work has appeared in Gargoyle, The Literary Review, The Bombay Review, The Lantern Review, F(r)iction, and more. He is the founder of the Indian basketball blog Hoopistani and has contributed to NBA India, SLAM Magazine, FirstPost, and more. His debut novel is forthcoming on the Aleph Book Company. You can find him on Twitter: @karanmadhok1 and Instagram: @karanmadhok.
