Sneha Subramanian Kanta | [PURGATORY IN PARIS]

after Sappho

water distils through
quiet city lanes

……………………………………………….pipes, borewells,
……………………………………platelet of monuments

passes through transference

………………………..(largesse of autumn)
………………………..how shadowy the trees
………………………..to replace the taciturn
………………………..with another quietude

because the rain
…………..the rain is a repository.

……………………………………………….before the icicle
……………………………………………….blooms, a prayer

blue reflects from the sky
below a sculpt of a woman

holding a tendril
from the window
………………………..(at 18 Rue Véron)

……………………………………………….bring me fruit
……………………………………………….love, like craters of fig

 


Sneha Subramanian Kanta is the author of the chapbook Ghost Tracks (Louisiana Literature Press, 2020). She is an Anaphora Fellow 2022, a recipient of the Digital Residency at The Seventh Wave, and the 2021 Robert Hayden Scholarship at Stockton University. She is the recipient of the inaugural Vijay Nambisan Fellowship 2019. She was the Charles Wallace Fellow writer in residence (2019-20) at The University of Stirling. Most recently, her poem “Witness” is an honorable mention in the 2021 Foster Poetry Prize at Contemporary Verse 2. Her work is forthcoming in UBC’s PRISM International, Room Magazine, The Minnesota Review, and elsewhere. She is the founding editor of Parentheses Journal. Website: http://www.snehasubramaniankanta.com.