Poetry at Sangam
Poetry at Sangam showcases poetry in English and translations as well as essays on poetics and news of new releases.
Because you will never see this I now write this line:
the image on my mobile screen –
one side of a face
on a coin from the age of Constantine the Great;
the wreathed head and sinister single eye
of a man whom – of course –
no-one alive could possibly have seen.
A Coin for the boatman, Anand? – I’m well beyond that now…
Hmm…a retort, as expected! I sense your wit, my friend,
Your boyhood love of the Hellenic – but no, I remind myself,
this isn’t you speaking,
just me mumbling to myself the sort of thing
you might have said.
I want to show you this coin,
this printed face in profile,
though it seems unlikely – even if I could –
that where you now are
such things continue to interest you:
you, who always said I could never quite see you,
because I never paused long enough to look;
because each time your eyes were about to say something
your lips couldn’t say, I looked aside.
I want you to know:
it is because you will never see them
I now write these lines.