Embedded Files
stone in the afternoon
the afternoon stone on the road
by tree, bush, bramble,
blood and seed,
stays where shadows hover
I walk past, I hear nothing
I tear at the air
and the bird passes
steel rods iron rods arraign the dull noon
the world emerges again
as shadow from stone
my heel presses upon gravel
the stone sits in the open
on the side of the road
such shadows combine
that a second sky adheres
where the stone sits
I walked past, I raised dust
the bird’s wonderment
is in my passing
the stone remains
as I pass
stone of tar-scree
exile of stone-kind
your eyeless gaze
follows me
in the shade of heaving trees
the stone and walker
wear out the afternoon
Threshold
A greater longing wrestles
amid the trees, disappearing light
hums, flapping wings wake
The evening is mercy: water
pouring out of time
Harness loosened,
the grasses are beaming
but the stones await the night-glass
The dirty cow is still
as an iron yoke in some field
Who has passed? Who cries?
Who waits in the shade without a face?
Who sings?
Bricks tear out of the building's facade
And cement patches glow
like icons
Aishwarya Iyer has written a book of poems, The Grasp of Things (Copper Coin/Sublunary Editions, 2023). Her poems, short stories and critical prose have appeared in journals such as The Bombay Literary Magazine, Humanities Underground, Almost Island, ASAP Art, Muse India, Pratik, Berfrois, Firmament and Poetry at Sangam, among others. Her drawings have appeared most recently in Hakara. She's visiting the University of Kent as the Charles Wallace Writing Fellow in Spring 2025.
Copyright © 2025 by Aishwarya Iyer, all rights reserved. This text may be used and shared in accordance with the fair-use provisions of Copyright law. Archiving, redistribution, or republication of this text on other terms, in any medium, requires the notification of the journal and consent of the author
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