The trove

The depot  is located in a cul -de -sac at the edge of the

chimerical city. Every now and then its doors let in

 bibliophiles floating forward  to reach out to the overflowing
 
 stacks in the phantasmagoric 
hall with a corbelled  celestial

 dome. Shivers of rubescence 
glow into its gothic windows 
 
splaying across inked parchments- a few traced with stray

 animal hair-and other paraphernalia of passages and paraphrases. Scents

of  sun-dried  plant reeds and baked clay mingle
 with douce

odeur of kami drifting in   corridors panelled with petroglyphs and

papier mache imprints.An odyssey of over
  a thousand and one  nights 

 tunneling its way through the cavernous belly 
of time; a  polyglot pot 

of ruddy roots shelved in  fistfuls 
 of moist soil; the red

  marrow feeding
  my scribed  bones.

---

Sushma A. Singh

Sushma A.Singh is a practising orthodontist who forayed into writing with her debut book of short stories in 2014 and thereafter delved deeper into poetry. Her work has been published in Brushfire literature and arts journal, Stonecoast review, Dash , Better than starbucks, The Dime Show Review, The Weekly Avocet, Acorn, Frogpond, The Heron’s nest ( haiku shortlisted for Touchstone award 2018) and two anthologies. She resides in Lucknow, India with her husband , a renowned dental surgeon and orthodontist.