Sabyasachi Roy is the author of Writing While the World Burns, an e-book on the craft of writing published by Authors Publish. His poems have appeared in Stand, Poetry Salzburg Review, Singapore Unbound, The Wise Owl, and others. His fiction has been published in Viridine Literary, Inglenook Lit, After the Storm, among several journals. He writes craft essays regularly for Authors Publish, and his photography has been featured in The Sunlight Press, Ink In Thirds Magazine, and as a cover image in Sanctuary Asia. His oil paintings have appeared in The Hooghly Review among others. Follow his writing on Matador:
https://creators.matadornetwork.com/
profile/e0x59k96/
Craft essays:
https://authorspublish.com/author/sabyasachi/ https://sabyasachiroy.substack.com/ Photography:
https://www.eyeem.com/u/sabyasachi13/
illustrations

Sabyasachi Roy

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The Almost-Parent Tries to Breathe

A kid outside drops a bottle
and the sound rings like a small future auditioning.
My partner sleeps diagonal,
ankle hanging like a question nobody grades.

De Beauvoir reminds me freedom's a job—
yeah, tell that to a room this tiny.
Rawls whispers fairness at the ceiling leak
drawing bright circles like cosmic paperwork.

I picture a kid calling me Baba,
chalk dust on my sleeves,
late salary, early fear.

The guavas on the table soften fast.
I touch one—warm spot, quiet bruise.
Some days that's enough to panic me;
some days it feels like inheritance.