Wednesday, March 8, 2017

International Women's Day Special: A Maid's Monologue - A Poem by Abhay K

I am your djinn, I am your angel
I am your maid, I am your house help
I am your nobody.


I am a Latino, I am a Philippino
I am a Nepali, I am a Uzbek
I am an Indian, I am a Caribbean
I am an African, I am a Burmese
I am a Chinese, I am a Pakistani
I am of every nation on the Earth.

I polish your shoes, I wash your clothes
I clean your house, I cook your food
I press your garments, I water your plants
I mow your lawns, I tender your garden
I drive your car, I guard your property
I look after your children, I shop for your groceries
I see to your every comfort.

I live in windowless holes
I eat leftovers from the kitchen
I sleep on the floor
I am first to rise, I am last to sleep
I work seven days a week
I am always at your beck and call
without any breaks, I don't celebrate festivals
I sob at nights abused and assaulted.

I speak your language in smatterings
I only listen, you speak
I am dumb-witted
I am a half-alive robot
I am a still-born Cinderella.

I am a cuckoo that can't sing
I am a swan that can't swim
I am a tiger that can't roar
I am an eagle that can't fly
I am without a past and future
I am merely present.

I live unloved
I am an easy prey for you
my breasts ever ready to be suckled
my words— my silence.

My passport forfeited
my earnings withheld
my body sick, my hands rough
my feet full of cracks
my shoes old, my clothes torn.

I am chained to your monstro-city
back home, someone waits on the deathbed
to be fed, to be bathed, to be cured.

Someone waits for my last glimpse.

(First published in Muse India)

Sunday, March 5, 2017

The Heron Tree in the lake Nicaragua: Video by Abhay K.


Abhay K. reading the Soul Song at the Street Poetry Carnival in Granada, Nicaragua

Abhay K. with school children at the Poetry Carnival in the streets of Granada, Nicaragua

Abhay K. with school children in Nicaragua at the Poetry Carnival. Photo: Francesca Cricelli

Bas Kwakman, Director of the Poetry International with a copy of CAPITALS


Abhay K. and Rebecca Sharp, poet from Scotland, at the XIIIth International Poetry Festival Granada, Nicaragua


Gioconda Belli, Abhay K. and Raul Zurita at the XIIth International Poetry Festival, Granada, Nicaragua


Poets at the XIIIth International Poetry Festival, Granada, Nicaragua





























Poets Rebecca Sharp, Krystina Dabrowska, Laura Shaughnessy, Mihaela Moscaliuc, Sarah Holland-Batt and Abhay K,at Poetry Festival Nicaragua

Abhay K., Ernesto Cardenal and Raul Zurita at the XIIIth International Poetry Festival, Granada, Nicaragua 2017



Snapshots of Panama City by Abhay K.







Abhay K. visiting the Panama Canal in February 2017