Poetry at Sangam

Poetry at Sangam showcases poetry in English and translations as well as essays on poetics and news of new releases.

Gourmand by Stephen Sturgeon

I tasted each inch of the earth.
I did not like it but I did it.
There were extravagant flavors,
Gobi, Horse Track, Lava Field, London . . .

People saw a starving criminal
and mildly kicked me, or flicked me crumbs,
while I etched a new map of the world
inside my roving mouth.

Soon Sweet, Acrid, and their family failed.
When my tongue hardened it discovered
specimens of No persistent

everywhere. In the tang of sunrise
or populous night; on footprints, scurried;
stable, through the caterwauling clay: No.

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