}} THE MIST SHOP by Ranjit Hoskote |

Poetry at Sangam

SangamHouse

 










THE MIST SHOP by Ranjit Hoskote

In the lost and found department of the mist shop
we scoured the stacks
for oil-slicked bay and casuarina stand
Twisting around in this rodeo season
of mustang tides we breathed out and bumped
into starched stretched ballooned ourselves
in a section advertising every shape and brand
of mirror

We ducked veered tilted away from the earth’s axis
rose to cloud forests dove to sunk islands
in the television screens in the department next door
TakeTake it as it comes said the acrobat
who badly needed a haircut
perched for the day among macaws and cockerels
at a counter across the aisle
their eyes gleaming their beaks torqued

concave convex anamorphic as Holbein’s skull
ready to swallow
you and the street and the houses across the street and I
could have sworn that was a comet
whooshing down the blocks or is that just
a man in oversize silver overalls
scattering pomegranate seeds from a torn gunny sack
on the sidewalks as he goes?

 

 

← Ranjit Hoskote