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Joao-Roque Literary Journal est. 2017

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Selma Carvalho
November 25, 2020
Poetry

Hues of Festivity

Selma Carvalho
November 25, 2020
Poetry
Hues of Festivity

By Rini. R. Mathew

Issue no 18

Orange, yellow, red hues of festivity
shines on my gloomy panes of sanctity
three of you gleam in pride
donned in effervescent loins of tide
No attire could better describe your magnitude

Tagged: Rini R. Mathew

1 Comment
Selma Carvalho
November 2, 2020
Poetry

Three Poems: Lost Coasts, in Threes

Selma Carvalho
November 2, 2020
Poetry
Three Poems: Lost Coasts, in Threes

By Siddharth Dasgupta

Issue no 18

This quarter of earth, awash
with a thousand churches,
and here I am, struck still
beneath a decorated mirage
of Chic Chocolate in salvation

Listen to Siddharth read his poem.

Tagged: Siddharth Dasgupta poet

1 Comment
Selma Carvalho
October 31, 2020
Poetry

Degenerate

Selma Carvalho
October 31, 2020
Poetry
Degenerate

By R. Benedito Ferrão

Issue no 18

Gecko looked well today
Her belly distended,
translucent parchment skin revealed
lines wrapped around her
like map-trails, branches of my family tree

Listen to Ferrão read his poem.

Tagged: R. Benedito Ferrao

Comment
Selma Carvalho
October 15, 2020
Poetry

Three Poems: Thirsty For Love

Selma Carvalho
October 15, 2020
Poetry
Three Poems: Thirsty For Love

By Pragya Bhagat

Issue no 18

i love you

i love you
sometimes, you may think i don’t or i can’t
or i won’t but consider this, i love you

Listen to Pragya read her poem.

Tagged: Pragya Bhagat

Comment
Selma Carvalho
August 4, 2020
Poetry

Four Poems: Pandemic Day Dreaming

Selma Carvalho
August 4, 2020
Poetry
Four Poems: Pandemic Day Dreaming

By Ashwani Kumar

Issue no 17

Wolves roar in the factory
Workers cough in the bed
Women scrub ankle dirt in the bathing tub
I have never told anyone
When my blood turns black

Listen to Ashwani read his poem.

Tagged: Ashwani Kumar

6 Comments
Selma Carvalho
August 4, 2020
Poetry

On Attempting to Adopt Kittens

Selma Carvalho
August 4, 2020
Poetry
On Attempting to Adopt Kittens

By Rochelle D’Silva

Issue no 17

Turn my stomach
into a loveseat
My chest—
into a bridge

Listen to Rochelle read her poem.

Tagged: Rochelle D'Silva

1 Comment
Selma Carvalho
August 3, 2020
Poetry

Three Poems: North Beach Whisper

Selma Carvalho
August 3, 2020
Poetry
Three Poems: North Beach Whisper

By Amit Ranjan

Issue no 17

I met her at the bar
She told me I have a nice scar
I touched the hem of her scarf
And said maybe she could give me another.
‘Lettuce turnip the beet,’ she wrote on a paper napkin,

Tagged: Amit Ranjan

Comment
Selma Carvalho
August 3, 2020
Poetry

Living Ancestors

Selma Carvalho
August 3, 2020
Poetry
Living Ancestors

By Rachana Patni

Issue no 17

Treacherous patriarchal veiled women
Who pickled customs, community, food, gods
Enforcing an identity dished out from memory.
Goddesses who embody beauty and embalm demons, riding tigers and lions

Listen to Rachana read her poem.

1 Comment
Selma Carvalho
August 3, 2020
Poetry

Shimla Street Cobbler

Selma Carvalho
August 3, 2020
Poetry
Shimla Street Cobbler

By Suneeta Peres da Costa

Issue no 17

The strap of my bag had become
worn and tattered on my travels.
Could he mend it? I asked, bending
to show him and suddenly aware
I had no word for ‘mend’ in Hindi.

Tagged: Suneeta Peres da Costa, Saudade

Comment
Selma Carvalho
August 3, 2020
Poetry

Two Poems: Social Distancing

Selma Carvalho
August 3, 2020
Poetry
Two Poems: Social Distancing

By Suhit Kelkar

Issue no 17

My heels leaving scuff marks in the dust
of the corridor should tell the neighbours
to keep their musical presence away.

Listen to Suhit read his poem.

Tagged: Suhit Kelkar

Comment
Selma Carvalho
August 2, 2020
Poetry

Two Poems: Surviving the Red

Selma Carvalho
August 2, 2020
Poetry
Two Poems: Surviving the Red

By Gayatri Lakhiani Chawla

Issue no 17

The woman is perfected and how
her hair tied back in a flat bun
an apron tied around her slender waist
the ends tied into a knot,

Listen to Gayatri read her poem.

Tagged: Gayatri Lakhiani Chawla

Comment
Selma Carvalho
August 2, 2020
Poetry

Omelette for Dummies

Selma Carvalho
August 2, 2020
Poetry
Omelette for Dummies

By Ermelinda Makkimane

Issue no 17

Take two medium-sized onions,
hmm, medium, as in when you
hold in one hand, you can just
about manage both, just about
with both shoving each other

Listen to Ermelinda read her poem.

Tagged: Ermelinda Makkimane

2 Comments
Selma Carvalho
July 29, 2020
poetry

Eight poems: Sighs and Wings

Selma Carvalho
July 29, 2020
poetry
Eight poems: Sighs and Wings

By Abin Chakraborty

Issue no 17

In the stillness of dawn, to sighs I've asked
Their lineage and destiny untold.
Flitting among shelves full of papers and books
They've whispered me tales full of petals now torn
Amid debris of silence that piles along walls

1 Comment
Selma Carvalho
March 24, 2020
Poetry

Two Poems: Elsewhere

Selma Carvalho
March 24, 2020
Poetry
Two Poems: Elsewhere

By Sayan Aich Bhowmik

Issue no. 16

I remember last winter
Reserved for sighing milky-ways into the fireplace
I ran into someone at the marketplace
Where lonely men display their solitude in crystal jars
Someone, wearing the same perfume
That you smeared on yourself after a shower.
The highways that have howled at midnight

Comment
Selma Carvalho
March 22, 2020
Poetry

Rain Clouds

Selma Carvalho
March 22, 2020
Poetry
Rain Clouds

By Salil Chaturvedi

Issue no 16

I've been waiting for the rain
For its tentative drumming on the tiled tympanum
of the house
Before the fulsome rhythm takes over
and sentences just run on

Tagged: Salil Chaturvedi

2 Comments
Selma Carvalho
March 22, 2020
Poetry

Rehashed Mosaic

Selma Carvalho
March 22, 2020
Poetry
Rehashed Mosaic

By Rochelle Potkar

Issue no 16

A dream that jumps the earth's technicolor palette,
borrowing mixtures from galaxies of pixelated pigments
via the Universe—your postman?

Tagged: Rochelle Potkar

Comment
Selma Carvalho
February 1, 2020
Poetry

The End of the World

Selma Carvalho
February 1, 2020
Poetry
The End of the World

By Aarti Balaji

Issue no 15

Remember when they taught us about acid rains?
How the water that falls from the sky is a force of life no more,
But a corrosive poison destroying faces of monuments and people alike?
Well, good news! we don't have to worry about that anymore,

Tagged: Aarti Balaji

Comment
Selma Carvalho
January 31, 2020
poetry

Three poems: Me, My wife, and the Other

Selma Carvalho
January 31, 2020
poetry
Three poems: Me, My wife, and the Other

By Ra Sh

Issue no 15

Wife cooks, feeds, cooks, feeds
Makes my bed, serves me meals in bed
I crave the other.

Wife bathes me, cleans my bum
Washes my clothes, dries and folds them
I crave the other.

Tagged: Ra Sh, poetry

Comment
Selma Carvalho
January 29, 2020
Poetry

Two Poems: The Thing About Ruins

Selma Carvalho
January 29, 2020
Poetry
Two Poems: The Thing About Ruins

By Pervin Saket

Issue no. 15

And so in these final days, everything
that can be fixed is fixed.
She is tired of a rundown world
seen through mismatched curtains
and one blurry cornea.

Comment
Selma Carvalho
November 20, 2019
Poetry

Two poems: We Spawn as Mushrooms

Selma Carvalho
November 20, 2019
Poetry
Two poems: We Spawn as Mushrooms

By Kinshuk Gupta

Issue no 14

In wards, our patients chew
myopic relations three times a day,
with a rainbow of pills, piss, pinpricks,
remember leukemic memories of 

Tagged: Kinshuk Gupta

Comment
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