Timekeepers
I. The Elephant Stables
Manda, he’d said, upper lip curling,
low-born, ponderous and dull, slapping
flank with the back of his hand, unfit
for a king.
II. Of Men and Beasts
The war
of eighteen days,
like all other wars,
was too long
and too short.
III. After
Peeling back the dark husk of the night,
the sky fixed a red eye on this:
IV. The White Watch
The pārijāta is a small, white, many-petalled flower. It is different from other flowers in that its fall from the tree is not artless. It descends in a clockwise spin on its scented vermilion stalk. Balsam and flame.
But this is a dawn doubly white. Luminous spirals have long hushed into armour and cloth and flesh.
Kanya Kanchana is a poet and writer from India. Her poetry has appeared in POETRY, The Common, Asymptote, Anmly, and elsewhere. It has also been indexed by invitation at The Columbia Granger’s World of Poetry and remixed and performed to music. Her essays have appeared in The Common, Asymptote, and Longreads. Kanya is also a practitioner, teacher, non-profit founder, and philologist at the intersection of Hindu and Tibetan Buddhist tantra and yoga, with a Research MPhil in Sanskrit Studies from the University of Cambridge. Formerly, she was a trained architectural engineer, programmer, technical writer, academic editor, and information designer.
