Poetry at Sangam

SangamHouse

 










Sand

In the kingdom of sand
          the three-eyed man is king
he measures the dunes
     by what’s left of meteor trails
                                and camel tracks
trusts only what he can smell
                  cloth is a cage
                  so he wears what’s real
nudges the trapped horizons awake
            calls out to his horsemen
        in sparse flashes of lightning
     when the rain comes it will be war
and he can see this script unravel three ways
                  every single time
             an eye for each tense
one tight eye to shut out the wind
one eye that was taken for an eye
       one eye wide as the ocean
                                as forgiving
with which he once saw
        a bird swoop down
on a listing ship
        perch and take wing
circle and point
          across a tsunami of sand
                     can it bring him home?
 
 
 
← Ranjit Hoskote