Buraya gelmek için hem dünyanın gölgelerinden geçtim.
Ailemle bağları kopardım,
Tasavvur edilemez renkleri kanadım,
Düşmanlar yaptım, arkadaşlar edindim.

Ama geldiğim yerinde hiçbir şeyim yoktu.
Param yok.
Işim yok.

Sadece kültürüm var,
mirasım ye var,
benim ye var.

Hayatta kalmak istiyorum

I walked through the shadows of the earth to get here.
I cut ties with my family,
I bled whatever colours my blood could turn,
I made enemies, I made friends, I made myself into whatever I needed to be.
but I came, and I had nothing.
I made myself into nothing.
I became nothing.

I don’t have money.
I don’t have work.

But, I have my culture,
my heritage,
and I have come far.

I only want to survive

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Kiran Bhat is a global citizen formed in a suburb of Atlanta, Georgia, to parents from Southern Karnataka, in India. He has currently traveled to over 130 countries, lived in 18 different places, and speaks 12 languages. He is primarily known as the author of we of the forsaken world… (Iguana Books, 2020), but he has authored books in four foreign languages, and has had his writing published in The Kenyon Review, The Brooklyn Rail, The Colorado Review, Eclectica, 3AM Magazine, The Radical Art Review, The Chakkar, Mascara Literary Review, and several other places. His list of homes is vast, but his heart and spirit always remains in Mumbai, somehow. He is currently bumming around Mexico. You can find him on @Weltgeist Kiran.