My tongue is an archipelago
My tongue is an archipelago
where a child makes
a kite with grass blades, flies it in the
grueling heat in my mouth and
eats the sun each winter.
If you feel my pulse
and touch the dried salty skin
where the wormholes have emerged –
you can teleport through them to
the moon of turquoise ink
pouring out epiphanies.
I can taste the soaring
bitter-sweet sea in my throat
swelling with pride ,having wrecked
the roots of a man who had turned
into a tree and found the cure for disappointments.
Past the smell of falling snow, crackling embers
and dense moist foliage
you can find a heart –
aloof, alienated, unaccustomed to the ways
and hasn’t loved at all.
I lay down my fishing line to catch a star or two
and cook them for a decent meal –
it might fill the void in my stomach at last.
The idea of existing alone makes things relentless
and bitter, the feeling of being held
fading as the sound of the willows
melt in the storm.
Receiver of The Kavi Salam Award 2018, Receiver of The Kavi Salam Award 2018, Sufia Khatoon is a multi-lingual performance poet, artist, literary translator and facilitator. She is the Co-Founder of Rhythm Divine Poets community Kolkata and the Editor of EKL Review. She has authored “Death in the Holy Month” and her second book of poetry is forthcoming from The Red River publication.