Teesta Review: A
Journal of Poetry, Volume 8, Number 1. May 2025. ISSN: 2581-7094
City of Dragon Mattresses
--- Ashwani Kumar
On the vanishing edge of memory
there existed a city in the forest of herbs.
You have no reason but to believe me —
there is no name for this city.
No shoes or cycles here for
anyone —
aging saints walking barefoot on the streets,
lined with hurricane lanterns flashing Buddhist smiles.
There are women, there are
children, but
for some unknown reason, everyone sleeps in the vermilion sunlight.
When it rains in the night,
the city turns into a silver pendant in the nose of a spider,
silently weaving dragon-mattresses for dark goddesses.
I open my eyes, I see
zebra-eyed silk-route traders gambling with clay toys in my room.
Saffron light lingers —
I only think of her when I think of my city.
Why is it that my sight has
worsened only in geography?
I take out my school atlas
from the cupboard and
search this city, window by window, everywhere…
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