Burning Bright
- Jan 26, 2024
- 2 min read
by Azhar Wani
Q: What is your fiction? Tell us about your stripes.
A: This was before you knew me: I was exiled from the Sundarbans. Behind each mangrove, my amber eyes still flicker underwater, craft fear under god’s air. I hung around the river at first. Brilliant conversationalist, she began reading the oracle on my stripes. Before she could translate from fur to roar, the sea caught us off guard at coast. No chance around that bully. I turned back, walked upstream, begged to be read again. She said: she’d said enough.
Q: What are your thoughts on being an exile?
A: It was raining. Under an awning built by men, the night’s face was a storm. Thunder tore at my claws. Under the awning, a cobweb. On it, a spider. In each of its eight eyes a million raindrops paused and spied at a million teardrops. They missed home. I missed home. When I woke up, I was in, what you call, a cage. No wonder it rhymes with rage.
Q: What’s the secret to your excellent productivity?
A: My new master owned me with his ivory staff, which of course, I never wanted to redden. I was taught tricks: to jump through loops, walk a tightrope, make you hate yourself, etc. When I was sent to your dreams, you were still a child. And as a child abandoned, I grew to love you from afar. I would, hunched behind a mangrove in your dream, watch you.
Q: Why does corporate hate you?
A: Now that I work in the dayshift, I know I can’t love you anymore. Now that you can see me — spread like moss over your brain — I see my stripes become your silent rivers. Now and then you see my face. You try to cry. I am relentless. You beg me to leave. I take pity; tell you a mantra I have recited for years. As your chest heaves like a tomb (collapsing into itself with each breath) you will repeat after me:
There is no take-five for the tiger.
Azhar Wani is a Kashmiri poet and translator, working between Kashmiri and English. His poetry has previously appeared in VAYAVYA, Aleph Review, Multitudes, and Inverse Journal. He is currently doing his Masters in Comparative Literature at Ambedkar University, Delhi.
