Market Town/ Ari Gautier/ Issue 22

(An accompaniment to the cover art by Orijit Sen)

The street lay tilted like a question

no one had time to read,

and all the answers were selling coriander

by the handful.

Cars drifted uphill in first gear dreams,

green beetles crawling on the spine of noon,

while an auto rickshaw yawned exhaust prayers

to the god of Almost Late.

Tarpaulins bloomed in improbable colors,

puddles of fabric collecting weather,

and beneath them women sorted vegetables

into piles of yes, no, and maybe tomorrow.

Marigolds spilled like lost suns

trying to roll back into the sky;

their petals stuck to bare feet

and rewrote every footprint as celebration.

Shop signs argued in different alphabets,

selling cold drinks, spare wires, borrowed time,

and a corner stall carefully displayed

the latest model of unexpected detour.

Children threaded between knees and crates,

small comets dragging plastic tails,

while a man with a shopping bag of shadows

paid in loose change of yesterday.

Dogs rehearsed democracy at the curb,

voting with their noses on discarded news,

then trotted off, unimpressed,

to chase a rumor shaped like a bone.

Somewhere a tree grew through concrete,

quietly translating sunlight into rumor,

and every rustling leaf announced

a discount on the price of staying.

At the far end of the market

the day tipped a little further sideways,

so the whole street slid into evening

like a coin vanishing in a magician’s sleeve.

Ari Gautier, born in Madagascar and raised in Pondicherry, the French writer and poet is now based in Oslo. He is the author of Nocturne Pondicherry and The Thinnai.

Orijit Sen is a graphic artist, designer, muralist, activist, and social documentarian. His expansive body of work includes murals, public art, comics, and graphic design. Orijit’s art reimagines real events and lvied experiences as fantastical narratives that provoke dialogue through wit and satirical humour.