By Nadia Irshād
New Paragraph
what's real about this world?
Scraps of urban fantasies in watercolour water-culture
Get my attention
Depicting thinkers in debate
A corner cafe, going deep, angst-filled markers of rebel adoration
what's real about this world?
It's all leftovers, buzzing bars
a group dancing in a corner that's been replicated, reeks
someone toppling over and walls that cackle
Faustian bargains in empty halls
Play acting as original thought
Mocking words like good and grace
Denying there is such a thing as evil
what's real about this world?
The bottom of the urbanite joke
A suburban meme, long land reserves
Solitude and acres
A hundred trees
Find yourself a space where it's hard to find a single salesman
A large slab of haute couturier soliloquy
In an indistinguishable coffee shop where both eyes can open and see
what's real about this world?
You'll laugh when I tell you to head to the suburbs, a nature reserve,
a quiet street without a single pop song on repeat, where no-one knows a hot ticket
A place where there are people who have nothing to prove
safe from the designs of those bargains made to music
rock & roll, mornings lost and mimicry called exclusive,
Hip, Art