}} CLEANSING WITH THE STARS by Suhit Kelkar |

Poetry at Sangam

SangamHouse

 










CLEANSING WITH THE STARS by Suhit Kelkar

Curl, chamomile miasma, along the floor. Done.
Glow, neon runes, in the smog of our past. Done.
Put your scythe down, director, and set us

extras on our marks that look like crosses. Done.
Say Action. In the same breath, say Cut. Done.
Let the shooting begin and end timelessly. Done.

Capture us on film, twist it between your fingers. Done.
Let the stertorous intake of our breath be dank. Done.
Make us reenact montages of our old times,

jump-cut sequences to be measured and gauged
which pop like wet wounds, stretching our skins.
Let each of our pores sprout a confessing tongue. Done.

Let our past coat the insides of our lungs… Done.
Let it flow in our breaths, drown our mouths… Done.
Purge repressed secrets from our bloodstream… Done.

Scrub them clean from our marrow. Done.
Have us face unwelcome strangers; ourselves —
so try as we may we can’t avert our eyes. Done. Make us see

that greater than the pain of facing your sins
is the agony of being a self, that your name
is the tolling of an empty bell, nothing else. Done.

You say hamming, I say emoting. Potatoes, potahtos.
Promise me you won’t take the scissors to my scene.
No guarantees. Post wrap up, please proceed to payments.

—

 

 

← Suhit Kelkar