Vertical Forests
by Sanket Mhatre
Words are seeds
we sow for tomorrow
Where an axe can melt into the navel of axis
emerge as a flower on the other side
Our voices etched in the bark
can put a soul to sleep
an Amazon in each word stretching
through thick mesh of bones and arteries
Pulp synchronized to our heartbeat
birdsong to a breath
While ink sprawls
on a dream of half slept pages
blank verse quivering with eternality on empty lines
Conjoining blood and conscience
in a network of memories
rooting us
To a new earth
where only time exists
- Unhalved
Sanket Mhatre has been featured at Kala Ghoda Arts Festival, Jaipur Literature Festival and Glass House Poetry Festival. His first book of cross-translated poems, The Coordinates Of Us, won the prestigious Raza Foundation Grant after been shortlisted at IWrite2020 at Jaipur Literature Festival. Sanket’s poems have appeared in multiple anthologies, such as Shape Of A Poem, The Well Earned, Home Anthology by Brown Critique, Poetry Conclave Yearbook, as well as literary magazines such as Punch, Borderless, Muse India, Madras Courier, The Usawa Literary Review, Men Matters Online, Anthology by Querencia Press, and many others.
