Fugitive Presences

Kalyani Bindu

You leave traces of your meek presence
in the grotto of my inner eye –
fossilized possibilities,
lackluster remnants of time.
My lungs silently detonate in an asthmatic swell.
Fetishes return as you materialize.
A shadow burns my back.
The blue drone in your mouth is a fly in my eyes.
Hands pierce a river of plasma.
Our napes sing a transcendental song.
You leave traces of a lonely muse,
harpooning fugitive presences.

Kalyani Bindu is a research assistant at the Indian Institute of Science. ‘Two Moviegoers’ was her first poetry collection and a forthcoming one is ‘The Love-Stricken Buddha’. Her poems have appeared in several Indian Journals: Madras Courier, Muse India, Indian Review, Navalokam, Bhashaposhini, Ethos Literary Journal, White Crow Art Daily and Modern Literature.

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