Anjum Hasan's poems have appeared in several recent anthologies of Indian poetry and her first collection of poems – Street on the Hill – will shortly be out from the Sahitya Akademi, New Delhi. She writes fiction and criticism in addition to poetry. Anjum grew up in Shillong and now lives in Bangalore where she works at the India Foundation for the Arts.

Neighbourhood

On the narrow steps leading
to our gate, the pakoriwallah from Bihar is often found
kissing an anonymous woman at night.

Amazing act. My parents switch off the sitting-room
lights whenever this happens. The car beams show
them up – one unbroken secret silhouette.

The steps invite other actions. The local fakir some-
times lies there, coloured like a ditch, and passers-by
might climb to have a better look at the orange trees.

But this is different. The soft-spoken pakoriwallah
smelling of his pakoris , his half hour island of
defiant passion on the steps of somebody's house,

while around him everyday: the brash freeloaders,
the kick in the groin, the familiar words of abuse
spoken in an unfamiliar language.

Anjum Hasan's poems (html link)