Alterations
Alternate realities. A poem in white and black:
Estuary Shroud
Rana walked in the afternoon heat
Teardrop leaves, gold dust pollen at his feet
Shiva rumbled from his distance
Dreams of wet
The silent ones are listing
Why the long ache
Why the congenital speak
Why the inverse proportion
Anvil interpretation
Acetylene meadow
Coffin estuary
Shroud upon the noun
This is classic denial
Deaf leper at the crossroads
Kensington Square
These yellow hands
Feel the cartilage
Lose the bone, separate
Cast from crown
Wheat from chaff
Shuddering:
Call the day this
Giant heart, this blowing
Wind, this diligent pearl.
posted by murat11 at 11:04 AM
2 Comments:
Paschal, I had fun putting this one down low on the screen, so's I could unfurl it one line at a time.
So many wonderful pairings: anvil interpretation, coffin estuary, yellow hands. "Feel the cartilage/Lose the bone, separate" I like the enjambment. Pun intended. The way "separate" could be followed by a period. Or not.
"this diligent pearl"--there you go again with that placing the abstract cheek-by-jowl with the more palpable. Me liketh. It.
Again, thanks for the eyes to take in these poems, San. This poem and the character Rana were birthed out of some reading of V. S. Naipaul's journeys through Pakistan and Indonesia. I wrote three Rana short stories as well: Rana was an expatriate ex-lawyer, son of political prisoners, adrift here in San Antonio. It was interesting to imagine (and language) his take on the West, putting him in odd places, and feeling the pulls of his city of Lahore and family and loss upon him.
Post a Comment
<< Home