​Poems by Manohar Shetty

Stills from Baga Beach
 
Vast freckled Englishwomen
Pylon-limbed
Thaw in the sun. Their breasts
Loll out like baby
Sealions.      
   
 *      *     *
 
Flabby leftovers of Valhalla
Diet on bread and bananas.
Their dozing blue eyes stroke
Small boys in torn
Pyjamas.
 
  *     *     *
 
The German studies the Vedanta
In translation through chromax
Dark glasses, her oozing
Tattoo mobbed by
Bluebottles.
 
 *     *     *
 
The temple elephant, vermilion
Swastika on its domed
Forehead, lumbers
Unblinking over the buff
Sands.
 
 
 
 
Morning Light
 
At midnight the hands
Point heavenward.
My body clock ticks
To a false tune.
 
I’m up before dawn
As the crickets fall
Silent, the moon
A thumbnail sketch;
 
My memory a half-filled
Library where borrowers
Have left bookmarks
After the first few pages.
 
Even the sunflowers
Lovingly tended in
The garden refuse to turn
East as I shine my shoes,
 
Iron my dark coat
Between burnt toast
And cups of cold tea for my
Neighbour’s funeral.

About the poet

Manohar Shetty has published seven books of poems, including ‘Domestic Creatures’ (Oxford University Press, New Delhi). His new books are ‘Creatures Great and Small’ (Copper Coin, N Delhi; 2014) and ‘Living Room’ (HarperCollins). In the UK his poems have appeared in ‘London Magazine’, ‘Poetry Review’, ‘Wasafiri’ and ‘Poetry Wales’. He has co-edited a special edition on English language poets of India for ‘Poetry Wales’. In the United States his poems have appeared in ‘Chelsea’, ‘Rattapallax’, ‘Fulcrum’, ‘Shenandoah’, ‘The Common’, ‘Atlanta Review’ ‘The Baffler’ and ‘New Letters’, and in ‘Helix’ in Australia. Several anthologies feature his work, notably ‘The Oxford-India Anthology of Twelve Modern Indian Poets’ (ed Arvind Krishna Mehrotra, OUP, N Delhi) and in anthologies edited by Eunice de Souza and Vilas Sarang. His poems have been translated into Italian, Finnish, German, Croatian and Slovenian.
He has edited ‘Ferry Crossing: Short Stories from Goa’ (Penguin India). and ‘Goa Travels’, an anthology of travel writings recently published by Rupa.
Shetty has been a Homi Bhabha Fellow and a Senior Sahitya Akademi Fellow. He edited ‘Goa Today’ for eight years and has worked in other magazines and newspapers in Bombay, Bangalore and Goa. He has lived in Goa since 1985.