}} DEAR STRANGER DECIPHERING THIS ANCIENT SCRIPT by Sridala Swami |

Poetry at Sangam

SangamHouse

 










DEAR STRANGER DECIPHERING THIS ANCIENT SCRIPT by Sridala Swami

Dear stranger, dear sentient being from a future so far I cannot imagine anything about it:

not the shape of poems,
not the way you will handle the corners
of pages
not the science you will use to decipher
this ancient script in which I write but which to me is given and taken for granted,

Dear stranger who makes my work timeless and immortal, for whose eyes only I seal this message in the bottle of centuries,

Dear salvager, dear rescue artist, dear hauntologist:

What have you done?

I wrote to escape attention. There was a brief sentence I had to serve before remembrance could be not about what has been. I wanted to fall like dust and be renewed in leaves.

How much have you forgotten?

I would like these words to be like a child’s first drawings. If you must keep them, keep them as you would a stone you picked in order to remember a place you visited.

Dear stranger, I say these things because I know they will mean nothing to you.