By: Anushka Saha
Love was a staircase collecting dust
Unbrushed by leather schoolgirl soles
Keeper of furniture, ghosts, and their howls
Bodies heaped in a crumble of limbs, sighs
Almost-people, their stories almost told
on leased time bargained between hourly death
Heavy-lidded dreaming of an ancient weariness
And of tomorrow that never came nor shall
To the soundtrack of rain shelling on tin
Drowning the block whole, and the city too
Save for a dream etched in zig-zags
On a staircase collecting dust.
Author's Bio
Anuska Saha (she/her) is an independent scholar, writer and musician based in Kolkata, India. She has an MA in English and turns to creative writing to record threshold experiences in dreams or in intimate encounters within the mundane. Her scholarly and creative practices converge in the realm of plants, marine life and animality. Her works have been featured or are upcoming in Flowermouth Press, Monograph magazine, Pendulum Magazine and others.