by Karan Kapoor
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| Children’s shoes and toys were placed in front of the former 7 after the remains of 215 children, some as young as 3, were found at the site this past week. Photo credit: Dennis Owen/Reuters via The New York Times, June 7, 2021. |
a radar
penetrates the ground:
215 little corpses
not corpses
remains—
skeletons and screams
unmarked—
all burial sites
are not graves
laughter of children
at a school,
a concentration camp
an escape plan:
jump
from the highest balcony
riddle: a four-letter word
with six more letters:
indigenous
let's play a game
stick out your tongue—
pins and needles
bless the Lord
you who serve Him,
undoing His will
we are children of god
let us show you the light
six feet underground
Karan Kapoor is the author of a novelette Maya and the co-author of a novel The Dreaming Reality, both independently published. Long-listed for Toto Funds the Arts awards, his poems have appeared in The Indian Quarterly, G5A Imprint, Stride, The New Verse News, and elsewhere. He's currently working on his debut poetry collection. When not reading or writing, he is obsessing over classical music. Currently in his final semester of MA in Literary Art Creative Writing, he wants to continue to live a life devoted to music and literature.