Athena Kashyap" />
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Literature, PoetrySeptember 24, 2013

primetime news

July 13, 2012, Assam, Guwahati

 

No sooner    she forgets

     than   she     sees   herself

again    and again,    outside

    the pub    twenty-plus   men

teasing  her   like they would

a caged animal,

Hydra hands   tearing off

       her panties,  her shirt,

       black horizontal bar

across  buttocks     and breasts

           the    only     cover.

 

Close up,   her face    dissolves

    into   blank   squares.

She   does   not   know   anymore

           who    she     is .

She clutches     the   remote

      but   cannot     stop

Ravan’s ten thousand mouths

       from   devouring her.

 

 

~ Athena Kashyap

 

Athena Kashyap’s first book, ‘Crossing Black Waters’, was a finalist in the Stephen F. Austin State University Press poetry awards, and published by them in Austin, Texas in 2012. Her second book, ‘Sita of the Earth and Forests’, is forthcoming in 2014, and will be published also by SFA Press. She currently makes her home in Bangalore, India where she teaches English writing and literature to college students and whoever else is interested. 

Featured artwork: ‘Wound’, by Ahsan Masood.

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One last love letter...

April 24, 2021

It has taken us some time and patience to come to this decision. TMS would not have seen the success that it did without our readers and the tireless team that ran the magazine for the better part of eight years.

But… all good things must come to an end, especially when we look at the ever-expanding art and literary landscape in Pakistan, the country of the magazine’s birth.

We are amazed and proud of what the next generation of creators are working with, the themes they are featuring, and their inclusivity in the diversity of voices they are publishing. When TMS began, this was the world we envisioned…

Though the magazine has closed and our submissions shuttered, this website will remain open for the foreseeable future as an archive of the great work we published and the astounding collection of diverse voices we were privileged to feature.

If, however, someone is interested in picking up the baton, please email Maryam Piracha, the editor, at maryamp@themissingslate.com.

Farewell, fam! It’s been quite a ride.

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