by Akshi Chadha
a tale as old as [time]
i was [ariel]
that morning when she [like a person]
grew legs and was reborn [without voice]
this country [a golden swallow]
its old feathers [stardust]
molting [egos falling apart]
like a fever [dream underwater]
from the darkness [darkness]
there rose [this neighbourhood]
a steel museum [where my bone gem]
opals [and blood garnets]
wrought [were cut into trinkets]
when we all were [thumbed into]
the eye [sockets]
of the god [of mars]
it was there [renaissanced]
i shrunk [retrograded]
into [a rotting rib]
a seed [engineered]
to disseminate [rootage]
a rhizomatic future [maladies]
splayed [on a map]
like a gulmohar canopy [seen from under]
the dull world [capsized]
became theatre [of war]
and i [a foal]
my eye [inside the alligator’s eyes]
looked over [earth's edge]
the commonwealth cliff [hanger looming]
wherever i was [mortal]
was home [of small hours]
and i was [scheherazade]
singing [the thousandth tale]
AKSHI CHADHA is a writer and literary editor. She is currently completing her MA in Creative Writing at the University of Toronto. Her work has been published in Canthius, The Lumiere Review, Parentheses Journal, Watch Your Head, and elsewhere. You can find her on Twitter at @akshi_chdh or at akshichadha.com.
Fabula can be found in Augur Magazine Issue 5.2.
