Ignition, 1972 | Aishwarya Khale

I

In dark dungeons, the men congregate in the night,
Slowly sipping their tea, smoking, and waiting for
the woman to bring them the chronicle and the
posted letters. From their brothers and sisters,
from seven oceans across. High storm waves,
the sailing cargo, racing through, reaches the Arabian.

II 

The Panthers; pumped up comrades, revolutionaries,
writers, and hopeful distant delights, wait for her to
reach the tribe. An untouchable woman, why would
she frolic around at night, the villagers wondered. The
broken paper pillage, a hope for the Panthers at home.
She shivers, looks up, a gun held straight up to her
forehead.

III

Dusk; a comrade sent out to protect the chosen one.
Disappeared or dead, they dread. The letter stays put.
Oversea post, under scrutiny, on the table, read by
them. Leaning against the wall, the man inspects.
Cigarette butts, a long journey to be, the revolution
shall remember the woman held at a gunpoint till
the last burning spark of the coming insurrection.

Aishwarya Khale has studied creative writing at Exeter College at the University of Oxford. She has volunteered at UNDP India. She has completed her master’s in Postcolonial writing and Subaltern studies from the University of Mumbai.

She has had her poetry published in Mississippi publishing magazine. Her short story, ‘Farewell to the sea’, has been published on Barnes and Noble and the Apple iBooks platform. Her travelogue has been published in Tripoto India. Her poetry (open mic) was published with Kommune India and Indie Habitat on Youtube. She has published her poetry in The Elpis Pages, Muse India, Mausoleum Press, IMDB critics review with MQAM, Royal Society of Literature, Loud Coffee Press, The Criterion, The Chakkar, Indian Rumination, and at the Staffordshire History Poetry festival.