The sun had already vanished behind
the lights, while we were busy arguing over
a meal gone wrong. I turn to the sea
after the goodbyes with no handshakes or
kisses. The bins aren’t empty yet, of
the plastic bottles and spoons, paper cups,
sandwich wraps, and other unnamable
stuff. A lone seagull hovers above, but I’m
the least bit worried. An artist, with a
fast-burning cigarette in his mouth, carries
his unsold paintings – ‘Jesus and Uncle
Mephisto on a Fishing Trip’, ‘Amy
Winehouse’s Inward Gaze’, ‘Self-Portrait of
a Frog as an Artist’ and so on – back
to the store that’s going to be his studio at
night. There’s a man persuading
a reluctant dog on a leash to get back home,
to end its inane engagement with
a piece of dirtied cloth that looks like
a headscarf that must’ve flown off
too far from someone who might not have
bothered to get it back, or to cover
their head again. I let the dialogues, tones,
gestures, omission of words, choice
of food, and length of sighs from my recent
memories lap against a receding
conscience. They froth over the signs, soon
to be washed off like footprints on
the sand; the very same signs that’d pushed
me to this vast emptiness where a stale
breeze caresses me, amidst what’s lost, torn
apart, stolen, relinquished, or thrown
away for no reason, to the smug black bins.
Jose Varghese is an Indian author who has worked as an English teacher in colleges and universities in India and the Middle East. He is the author of ‘Silver Painted Gandhi and Other Poems’ and his short story manuscript ‘In/Sane’ was a finalist in the 2018 Beverly International Prize. He was a finalist twice in the London Independent Story Prize (LISP), a runner-up in the Salt Prize, and was commended in the Gregory O’Donoghue International Poetry Prize. His works are published in Litro, Joao Roque Literary Journal, Haunted Waters Press, Tempered Runes Press, Cathexis Northwest Press, Beyond Words Literary Magazine, The Best Asian Short Story Anthology (2019 and 2021), The Best Asian Poetry Anthology (2021), Dreich, Live Encounters, Meridian – The APWT Drunken Boat Anthology, Unthology 5, Unveiled, Reflex Fiction, Faber QuickFic, and Flash Fiction Magazine.
