poetry
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The First Protest
They are used to her tantrums: head flung on the lap of a supermarket trolley, one lollipop away from submission. Continue reading
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To Have a War or Not
this question you do not have to answer to live together in peace please tell me how Continue reading
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Sunny Side Up
It’s always difficult to know when to make the crack and how. Whether to tap the shell slightly with the right side of a sharp fork, or to make the cut directly. Continue reading
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Fragments: Aberystwyth Castle
Here, are rains, leftovers, the old rattle of a dog’s lead. Continue reading
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Orphans
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. Continue reading
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Having Eaten the Plums
Mamma swings like Chaplin on her back foot; imagines herself mighty Continue reading
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The Technology of Explosion
just as the Dalai Lama lets mosquitoes gloat red with his blood Continue reading
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Paper Wasps
almost occupying crumbling hotel hinges in Buenos Aires, these workers build their nests, unaware that within each lies a queen Continue reading
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Fear in a Handful of Salt
If you taste pepper flakes or chilli, you will be angry. Tears in sofa cushions. Shut doors and silence. He will handpick your flaws and grind them. Continue reading
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I don’t know very English
Found Poem based on extracts from Fidel Castro’s letter to President Roosevelt. Continue reading
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.