An Epic Fantasy In Verse
by
An epic fantasy in verse about a female locksmith and an orphan beggar boy who time travel, helping survivors in a world ravaged by climate change. Along the way they use cunning and magic to outwit the evil Consortium and offer their help to seed savers and outcasts in a world ravaged by climate change and global disorder. Bramah is brown, brave, and beautiful, supported by her Grandmother and the Four Aunties of the Wishing Well. The Aunties foretell the future and teach survival skills, such as seed saving, soap and glass making, skills necessary in a planet battling contagion and eco-catastrophes.
Resistance Song
At the year’s midnight, we sighed, heads bent to—
Perimeter where oracles foretold
colony collapse, our aunties saving
mason bees, small finds in handmade glass jars.
Wildfires in November, ash mixed with ice
our skin dry and cracked, scalps covered in lice,
grey skies unending, snow drought extending
salal leaves withering, their spines snapped in two.
At Tower Juniper, Rentalsman stood
ready to accept payment for shelter.
We bartered our daughters, we sold our boys
WiFi on ration, our androids, no toys:
Toxic Alert on high, we ached for green
who would have thought of us, standing, unseen.
>>>>> ♛♛♛
mind those drones
they’ll break your bones
hide and sweep,
duck and swerve
watch us, learn
these raindrops, burn.
Meredith Quartermain, courtesy Nightwood Editions wrote:"With Bramah and the Beggar Boy, Renée Sarojini Saklikar has resurrected the epic poem for the Anthropocene, merged it with the visionary qualities of speculative fiction, and woven diasporic threads into a new and necessary act of world making. The future was such a long time ago—but maybe it’s not over yet. Throw the dice. Jump the fence. Cross the threshold. The carmen perpetuum, the continuous song of THOT J BAP has begun. Only beauty unfolds from here."
"Bramah and the Beggar Boy takes us into a near-future apocalyptic world on an odyssey of our time. Like Melville’s great whaling story, Saklikar’s marvelous tale rivets us with mind-blowing insights into the destructive forces at work right now in our capitalist world and how we might resist and overcome them. It’s a page-turner."
