Preeth Ganapathy, Bengaluru, India
The long endless road—
unpeopled, holds the weight of the sky
and the scent of the mountains.
Ponds emerge unexpectedly on the sides,
green and brown,
turn blue, tinged with the colour of dawn.
The temple glows
in the calm light of its reflection
on the backwaters.
The clouds smoke up in the mist,
the music of crickets
ring through half-formed dreams.
The gossip of ten ashy woodswallows
settles on the wingspan of silence.
The lake is sprinkled
with barren leafless trees—
their tips housing families
of Indian cormorants
that spread out their black feathers
under a new-born sun.
The conversations of a lonely hill mynah
echo through the islands,
the jungle,
the water,
the wind.
The ripples peter out
and calm settles on the waters
like mist thawing
in tune with the slow-paced music
of the crocodile bark tree.
Preeth Ganapathy's works have been published in several magazines including Atlas and Alice, Origami Poems Project, Amethyst Review, Loch Raven Review and Mothers Always Write. She is also the winner of Wilda Moriss's July 2020 Poetry Challenge. She lives in Bengaluru, India.