M K Ajay

M K Ajay

M K Ajay was born and brought up in the coastal town of Kozhikode, Kerala. His poems have appeared in publications such as Orbis, Blue Fifth Review, The Little Magazine, Cerebration, Poems Niederngasse, Crimson Feet, Chandrabhaga, Brown Critique, Poetry Chain, and others. He currently lives with his family in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

AFTER FLOODS, MUMBAI

Manthan must have been
a cruel parody of this churning;
soles in muddied water,
anklets lost in streams
of pedestrian worries, and dear ones.
Water, everywhere,
a gigantic shadow winding into people.
The city, sad as ghazals wafting
from an abandoned car - a hologram
of rain clouds’ last intent –
docile, resigned, never dead
to possibilities of circumstance -
hawkers selling inflatable mats,
a cornered mongrel floating into freedom.
We too have become hawkers of hope,
brief tenants in this monsoon’s dark grief,
the muted rainwater’s only chronicle
of survival, and wet terror.
The rain clouds’ final intent
was in our fears then,
a fast receding reminiscence.

AFTERNOON FUGUE

When I awoke finally
the history that slept with me
had become a cadaver
besieged by riots.
What lies beyond
this curtained afternoon
of soot smells and rail tracks?
A headless dream walks
through heat of loneliness
beside vada-paav stalls,
hungry and humid as this air.
Rain clouds threaten to strike
but retreat at cries of Namaaz
at the colony’s bend. A boy
sees his kite shredded into the sky’s tears.
The pain we cannot feel
is bottled up, unborn raindrops
which will lash us with their coldness
in evenings, raindrops which
will singe our skins with hatred
till the bare flesh is seen.
Agonizing heat. Footsteps.
The crazed recall of Ayodhya
rustles in our veins.