Fury
Collapsifera indica
in whose drooping shade
our nation’s fate
is read today
by what fury
charged with bile
by what fury
hellfire-drunk
by what fury
crying havoc
by what fury
gorged on itself
by what fury
unopposed
by what fury?
Mnemonym
Say that one word that will bring back
itihasa taareekh istoria
one valise in which all the saved generations might find
a cracked eyeglass a thumbed magazine
a toothbrush
Protest
for Sudhir Patwardhan
Hand at the gate
fist around the stone
hand on the placard
fist around the stone
hand around the flagpole
fist around the stone
hand around the baton
fist around the stone
grip the flint-edge clarity
of breath ebbing from stone
Aspirate
The lightest smear of bird
balancing on a fluted column of air
the branches of the snow tree
outside our window
have settled on the surface
of the coffee we’re about to drink
what will complete us
falls from the sky
Clue
On dark nights scorched by welders’ torches,
alphabets rasp and click in gleaming beaks.
The wires overhead, necklaced with pigeons,
tweak messages with each slow swing
to static. Five men have been trying
to hoist a flag, whipping back an ocean of wind.
One of them remembers to toss you
an elephant’s tail. You tick that
off your list. One more to go.
Halfway down the hill
you stop. The brick steps have rained
on the valley’s sleeping roofs.
Sing, you tell yourself. There
are no more clues to be read.
