Page 29 – The Bangalore Review

Poetry

April, 2022

Cancer Hair Cut

The salon is quirky— an indoor swing, a stuffed unicorn— silver and pink everywhere. My stylist meets me at the door tearful and subdued, as though about to prep a beloved aunt for burial.

April, 2022

A Quiet Fortune

Before heading out the door, I grab the wallet and the keys, and a few euro cent coins from the small pile of spare change. My eyes glaze over the underwear, a black pair, and they linger for a long moment on the quiet, scentless stain in the breadth of its twisted form. A strange, delicate sensuality.

Poetry

April, 2022

Some Boys

Trash-talk. Heart on one's sleeves. Girls. Tattoos and scraped knees/ Random talk of beautiful, myth, foolish, heady girls/ more girls. Brittle desires unfurl.

April, 2022

Candle Cottage

‘Where are you from?’ he spoke slowly, digging deep into his thoughts for the only question he could think of to start a conversation, as if that skill of social inter reaction had long ago been placed in a far corner of his mind because he had convinced himself it was of no further use.

April, 2022

Lives Are Measured

Another memory spreads across the field. My parents load me and my siblings into the brown GM van; we sleep on the 14-hour drive to our grandparents’ mountain town filled with lights and purple shadows and cowboys and scents of anise and Chex mix. The year I was born, my grandparents moved west for Grandpa’s job with the railroad.

March, 2022

TBR Recommends – March 2022

Every month, The Bangalore Review recommends a reading list, also mentioning in brief why each book must be read. This month’s list has been compiled by writer, Çiler İlhan.

March, 2022

Witnesses of Remembrance by Kunwar Narain

Sucharita Dutta-Asane reviews Kunwar Narain's selected poetry collection, Witnesses of Remembrances.

March, 2022

The Princess: A Parable

‘Who am I?’ The Princess asked the breeze. She asked the coloured waters, she asked the jewelled sky. She leant against the tree trunks, and sought her answers there. All she saw was beauty, all she saw was life though she didn’t recognize it so.

March, 2022

Butch Learns to Write

The student teacher was substituting that day in 11th grade English. This pleased Butch Warner, a tough guy who resented authority. He expected a lame..

Poetry

March, 2022

A Long Time Ago, at a McDonald’s in West Columbia, SC

The McDonald’s, bright and beautiful,is a coloring book filled in bya comic book artist. Yellow doesn’tstay inside the lines of the GoldenArches. Yellow doesn’t spill..

March, 2022

Suitcases

Brenda sat on the edge of the bed in her dead father’s room. She could still smell his piss. The staff at the nursing home..

Poetry

March, 2022

Shaker Dreams

We should do everything as if we had a thousand yearsto live and as if we were going to die tomorrow.-Mother Ann Lee Down below..

March, 2022

The Girls, The Ladies, The Rack

My best friend, Lee, and I have shared nearly 50 years of friendship. We have supported each other through childbirth, are godmothers to each other’s..

Poetry

March, 2022

Outside the Laundromat: A Forward

Rittenhouse Square, Philadelphia, 2008 In mottled cotton, shambling toe-heel, toe-heel,Bass-ackwardsWith Zen concentration and breathing down the neck Of the square’sPath, sinking under the shards of bruised..

March, 2022

Light of the Sabbath by Kavita Ezekiel Mendonca

Neera Kashyap reviews Light of the Sabbath by Kavita Ezekiel Mendonca.

Poetry

March, 2022

Clothesline

I blink at sky, fiery yellowthis time of afternoon, as I unpinlaundry flapping in an intermentbreeze like flags of surrender. Clothes have wrapped around themselves,knotted into..

March, 2022

Postcards

Before the 2021 fall election, I agreed to write messages on 100 postcards to a list of strangers in Virginia to encourage them to vote...

March, 2022

Mrs. Munro is Heading Home

Each day, after breakfast, but before lunch, I’d see her old car making its way up the dirt road, great clouds of dust surrounding the..

Poetry

March, 2022

An Ad I Wrote As A Child for a Ghost to Live in the Attic

I show my dead grandmothers the map I drew: here is woman, there is queer, here is my dot on gender ave. Wish you’d braid..

March, 2022

In Hopes of Returning

There is a Japanese folk tale about a palace under the sea, a palace made of crystal and ruled by a Dragon King, where time..

Editorial

February, 2022

What’s Next for Publishing?

Our editor responds to the dismal news of Westland's closing.

February, 2022

TBR Recommends – February 2022

Every month, The Bangalore Review recommends a reading list, also mentioning in brief why each book must be read. This month’s list has been compiled by award-winning writer and poet, Priya Sarukkai Chabria.