Poetry by Uday Khanna
While being buried I thought why spare me space for breathing,
I should’ve been wound in white and cremated instead.
Waking has taken up the place of life,
I should’ve been nostalgic for a time which passed me by instead.
Living has come disarmingly too fast lately,
I would like a stern word instead.
Someone asked me how I write so beautifully of terrible things,
I should’ve been a keeper of chopped meat instead.
I was named ignorant far too many times,
I should’ve been left blissfully unaware instead.
I keep meeting myself on different horizons for novelty,
The mystery of time is repetition instead.
This circle tells me I’m merely a handful of mistakes,
I should’ve been a fistful of wasted sperm instead.
Soon poetry will become unattainable,
I should’ve gone back to plucking flower buds instead.
O poet, you’ve spent all your life seeking to write about an ungrateful ant,
You should’ve stepped on it instead.
Uday Khanna is a research scholar currently pursuing his MPhil from the University of Delhi. His research interests lie in the fields of postmodernism, media theory, cyber-culture, and 20th century short-story genre.
