Please Smoke a Cigarette Beyond the Cauchy Horizon
by Aashima Prasad
Time was made an angry daughter.
She locked the gate at 7:30 p.m.
for her ruffian brothers to return to books
instead of smoking at the street corner.
An angrier father burnt her books
to arrest her rush and gush,
teach her- education only made her a lady,
never a leader.
She ran away on a bus
with an offer and an oath
to be a busy woman.
Time became my mother,
who birthed me as space.
I hope they build a time machine,
so she can run farther
and her worldline
would not be so steep.
I hope they build a time machine,
so we can both be expansive fields
sharing a barbed wire fence.
And no woman has to be time.
Appears in —
This issue is a curation of poems written by the participants of Ayaskala’s Poetry Writing Retreat held in March, 2025.
Self Portrait —
Created during the retreat, this A5 self-portrait is a visual echo of the poet’s inner landscape.
Aashima Prasad
Aashima Prasad holds a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in English from the University of Delhi. Her interests are reading, writing, films, how to eat rice in a hundred ways, and dancing with friends on a random weekday.
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