Ankita Saxena

writer and performer

Orphans

Maybe it’s time to go. To lie in the folds of one city,

While listening to the jagged,

Carnal breaths of another.

Tishani Doshi ‘The Adulterous Citizen’

Lonely boy flirts with the lull of a floating soprano.

 

Pastor Sarah begins: “Lord, you are

the ultimate planner” raising palms above

her head to bless.

 

Lonely boy taps on flower-pots turned to drums. Roots

gnawing at hollowed-out skins.

 

Using only his index and middle finger,

he makes a tribute to Reinheardt.

 

Tiny cracks of light form a sky of crystal chandeliers.

 

Girl stands in rain, hands cupped carrying a candle. Newly

a woman she wears a purple scarf.

 

Something spiritual, almost Sufi in the way lonely boy plays.

 

“On the corner of Dongping Road,” Pastor Sarah says

“you will find it.”

 

Girl bends down. Watches his face discolour like autumn.

Counts the shades.

 

“If you come out of Exit One” she says,

“turn left. And if you come out of Two, turn right.”

 

The road winds like a screw, seems

to end up nowhere.

 

Somewhere, a deep voice calls to prayer.

 

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About Ankita

Ankita Saxena is the author of Mother | Line, which released in April 2023, with Verve Poetry Press. She read English Literature at Jesus College, Oxford (2014-2017), where she was Head of Events at Oxford University Poetry Society, and President of the Turl Street Arts Festival. She has been commended in the Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award three times. She is a Barbican Young Poet alumnus, part of the Octavia Poetry Collective, and one half of the ORIGINS Poetry Duo. Her poetry is published in Wasafiri, Modern Poetry in Translation and Bath Magg. She has performed widely across the UK, including live at Hammersmith Appollo, with The Guilty Feminist.

By day, she works at Social Finance, a not-for-profit social enterprise, helping to tackle complex and enduring issues in society and create lasting and widespread change.