• Vol. 09
  • Chapter 10
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metro/polis

they have started a new metro route in the city last month
it is called the east-west line, but only half of it is alive now
the rakes run between seāldāh railway station and salt lake
but soon, in ten years, they will run under the old secretariat
and then crossing the hoogly, they will reach the other city
but that’s another story: the issue being that the city is so old
that a synagogue would’ve caved in due to the boring worms
that they brought from germany, but we’ll learn from history
but that’s another story: the issue being that they are so new
a newness that doesn’t allow people to jump to their deaths
before them, for the glass doors are so sophisticated, oohlālā
but that’s another story: the issue being that they are so fast
as fast as public transport can be in a city of cheap labour
that spreads like synapses towards the fringes of modernity
but that’s another story: the issue being that they are so late
and people need to dream to be able to feed their hungers
but lawnmowers and rucksacks have not yet arrived here
there is no story there: the issue being that there is no space
the city was once the second capital of the dreaded empire
now, it is only but a stray figment rushing past to catch up
becoming a story: metro in the polis in the metro and so on

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