somewhere not like anywhere else
on a ledge between a himalayan jungle
and the neverending valley below between
beauty and abyss, too steep to climb up too deep
to crawl down, lost with a tremulous taste of death
which tasted like life: spicy and wet and alone
and impossible to resist; a foolish risk
unchartered paths, no paths, i’m free i’m free i slip—
bruised and broken, half-regretted, and yet i found
my way back home to live another day to die
a slower death.
***
Karan Madhok is a writer, journalist, and editor of The Chakkar, whose fiction, translation, and poetry have appeared in The Literary Review, The Lantern Review, F(r)iction, and more. He is the founder of the Indian basketball blog Hoopistani and His sports journalism has been published for NBA India, SLAM Magazine, Firstpost, Scroll, and more. A graduate of the American University’s MFA programme, Karan is currently working on his first novel. Twitter: @karanmadhok1
