Pratyusha
dreamsong lyric
echo glimmer: the oud’s cavernous song
& under there, an aerial mirror—
your limbs like water / our senses
frighteningly alive like flowers on stems
the vowels graze our tongues before dissolving
in/to forests of leaf-scent
follow half-tastes into colour(-burning)
what rustling silence is it
sadness that moves in our dances
that sits like a stone (that we dance on)
in a night of nebula and guts[1]?
(he) moves through the night as blue as lapis
a boy almost at sea
the night moves around him and rearranges itself
humming sadness; (his) irises hoard waves
moving panther (…)
crying out a doleful rhythm
eyes of fragrant topaz
still gleaming its soft fur coat in the night
(his) name cuts like moth/wings through the night
dark placelessness (…) fluent black words
we cultivate names like moth/wings
secret names, names that contain the entirety of
a self (a soul)
me miré en tus ojos pensando en tu alma[2]
re(collect):
1. water catches fire when it tries to escape the beg(innings)
2. water breaks open with too many secrets
3. we are here where it all began
where is the emptying done?
[1] Adonis
[2] Lorca: ‘I looked in your eyes thinking of your soul’
Pratyusha is an Indo-Swiss student currently at King’s College London. She is one of the editors for the online eco/world poetry zine, amberflora. Her new pamphlet (published by Zarf Poetry) will be released later this year. @pratyusha___