PHOENIX

LEELA SOMA

Mangled , strangled, blood, ink 

blood red, ink black colours dripping on 

asphalt tracing strange patterns

blood red, ink black fuse -indigo-

ripped pages curl up in the smoke, 

book bindings melt, leather tomes

the gilt spines blackened, words lost

or are they? 

like a phoenix rising, the blue-black 

red-tinged words fly high up in the sky

the world over. Al Muttanabbi Streets

forge ahead in shiny new pages of white

brown, hues, the palette of colours

rich as the artists and writers of the world

as they birth verses, sketch a new world 

to replace pain, loss. The shock and awe of love

reinvigorates, unites and creates.

Leela Soma's poem, Phoenix, was written for Scottish Pen for an event at Kelvingrove Museum for Refugee Week Scotland July. 2018.

Her new novel, Murder at the Mela, has just been released by Ringwood Press.

Leela was born in Madras, India and now lives in Glasgow. Her poems and short stories have been published in a number of anthologies, publications. She has published two novels and two collections of poetry. She has had poems published in Gutter, The Blue Nib, Anthropocene, Black Bough Poems, The Glasgow Review of Books and many others. She was also nominated for the Pushcart Prize 2019. Some of her work reflects her dual heritage of India and Scotland.

Twitter: glasgowlee

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/leela.soma

website: leelasoma.wordpress.com

Picture courtesy of Movidagrafica, Pixabay