Deadbeat Lovebirds
The first things it remembers are familial—the inside of an egg, a pulsating warmth, and another like itself, only bigger, only stronger. Its head, now too heavy for its neck, rests upside down beside broken egg shells. The last things it will remember are first scents—leaves, earth, autumn rain, and almost everything bird, only mildly faded.
Tejaswinee Roychowdhury lives in India and is a lawyer, writer and the founding editor of The Hooghly Review. She was recently selected for the Yearbook of Indian Poetry 2023 (Pippa Rann Books, 2024), nominated for the 2025 Best of the Net Anthology, and longlisted for the 2024 Wigleaf Top 50. Catch her tweeting @TejaswineeRC.