Aditya Bahl

after Vassilis Zambaras’s Aural

________________________________________

What si
lence the
word breaks?


         . .


                                                                                           onomatopoeia
two oriental white-
eyes fluttering in

the sangwan tree

wind in yr nostrils
wind in yr throat


         . .


                                                                                           no bird
                                                                                           no tree
                                                                                           no person

Whereas, where
as here— where
did the bird
go?

Afterwards
the word—
after words—

more
and more

words
make a loss

of loss


         . .



as if—

as if
there’s more
to the word

there


         . .



at sea

horizon

lost the
bridge

of his
glasses


         . .


Further, a sea
farther than
the eye can
see—

To be other
wise— to
be I, to

forget it


         . .


                                                                                           rose


What lies
under

the snow
seeks

light
to be

here


         . .


now & the
n a sense

of how
presence

lost
the mind

light

the direction
pine

needles take


         . .


                                                                                           here
Things keep
falling
in place.

A place so
wanting

Until—
a wanting to
leave, to leave
things in place

Recovers
nowhere
out of nowhere


         . .



once more

itinerant at
breath

one more

a gain tells
now but never
again


         . .


Just

ob

serving the
light be

coming
You


         . .


Keeping
up with

the light
less

and less

speech
-less


         . .


                                                                                           coda
Beyond
the image of syllables

is no beyond
bt only this, what

you have I have—


Periphery isn’t
anymore or where

once written
its here, here

onwards—


         . .


To do
whatever
will take
to take it
from here

Aditya Bahl was born and brought up in the mountain state of Himachal Pradesh (India). Recent works have appeared or are forthcoming in Lilliput Review, Poetry Salzburg Review, Otoliths, iARTistas and others. A chapbook of visual poetry is available here. He is one of the co-editors of Bones, a journal for contemporary haiku.
 
 
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