(i)

The enamel of sea changes from coast to coast // my grandmother holds the scent of two flowers in her
hand // the shape of winter // bends in the direction of her brow // if we could hold tangible land //
in our palms // there would be hymns for all creatures // that spend days in hibernation // what is
protection from war // but a camouflage of seasons // the rising dough to prepare chapatis // becomes
hunger translated from one language // into the syntax of another // the last train from Pakistan leaves
// for India // the last train from India leaves // for Pakistan

                                                                             (ii)

There is an encompassing fog beside the lake // leaving an echo // of its shrill whistle amid flickers of
fire // the widening light over a night of molasses // glows like winged beetles // my grandmother
remembers landscapes of earthen fireplaces // as a homeland particulate // what comes after the wound?
// an upheaval // or uprising // a churning of blood // a treatise for the promise of life //
my grandmother holds summer rain // in the pleats of her saree // with praise for the warm soil //
what is the difference between bloodline and border? // a line of control //

                                                                             (iii)

You sing across an expanse of conifers // a unison of blessed mouths // for forces of nature // for
names you learn before your own // a map is a soliloquy to forget roots // you wallow in the absence of
beloveds // a solitary ship // sings to all the seas in an atlas // you walk through fire // to enter water
// an entrapment of narrow mouths // recoil of muscle tissue // underwater fissures // soak in blood
// again the heaviness of blood // even on evergreens //

Sneha Subramanian Kanta is a writer from Canada. She has been awarded the inaugural Vijay Nambisan Fellowship 2019. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Waxwing Magazine, The Normal School, Muzzle Magazine, The Puritan, and elsewhere. She was the Charles Wallace Fellow writer-in-residence (2018-19) at The University of Stirling. Her chapbook Ghost Tracks is available to order from Louisiana Literature Press. She is the founding editor of Parentheses Journal. Website: www.snehasubramaniankanta.com