The President Asks Kiran Bhat Poetry

local_library The President Asks

by Kiran Bhat

Published in Issue No. 286 ~ March, 2021

The president asks: How is freedom in our country?

 

Kiran says:

 

When the lobster is thrust into boiling water,

 

He doesn’t know his circumstance.

 

He simply has his legs and claws tied up.

 

Perhaps he knows his destiny.

 

Most likely he does not.

 

 

 

The lobster is thrown into the boiling water.

 

The lid is put on top.

 

He looks on the other side of the translucent lid.

 

He imagines the islands,

 

the fat fish of his thrill.

 

 

 

And then he stops thinking.

 

 

 

Kiran concludes: Whether or not we have freedom, I am not sure.

 

My brain has long been boiled.

 

 

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Kiran Bhat is a global citizen formed in a suburb of Atlanta, Georgia, to parents from Southern Karnataka, in India. He has currently traveled to over 130 countries, lived in 18 different places, and speaks 12 languages. He is primarily known as the author of we of the forsaken world... (Iguana Books, 2020), but he has authored books in four foreign languages, and has had his writing published in The Kenyon Review, The Brooklyn Rail, The Colorado Review, Eclectica, 3AM Magazine, The Radical Art Review, The Chakkar, Mascara Literary Review, and several other places. His list of homes is vast, but his heart and spirit always remains in Mumbai, somehow. He currently lives in Melbourne. You can find him on @Weltgeist Kiran.