emigrant

Sneha Subramanian Kanta

does this soul

demand a border

before it takes

wing to another

land?

does the root

replenish under

a different soil

with the same

color and taste

upon the tongue?

the source,

the tributary,

the river

red with mud,

gray with rain

in the darkened night

full of sleep

at morning

it empties

with reflections.

A GREAT scholarship awardee, Sneha Subramanian Kanta is pursuing her second postgraduate degree in literature in England. Her poem 'At Dusk with the Gods' won the Alfaaz (Kalaage) prize. Untold stories of refugees, writing from the margins and postcolonial literatures are causes that resonate. Her work is forthcoming in Brickplight, Dialog Journal, Madcap Review and elsewhere.