echo

          i

          it is i who plunders i / say – self, ache, زار / battery acid in braingray / a ripple in the crux
          / & / therapy as staunch as tar / this skin to unlace / all filigree, all fossil / all angel, all
          animal / a shuddering flag / underneath / pillars of destined refusals / i should adore
          you / to a reckoned sin / earth’s red drag / threaded between my ribs / sin hablarme /
          sin mirarme/ a good wife is— /skewered game, grub / of gods / maybe i continue / as
          amnesty for the salt / of this dearth / magic rising from / a man is prophesy / from / a
          woman is heresy / maybe he leaves me / a purloin of unsung fires / maybe we live this
          / blood we are bonded by /maybe i finally tame / its rising / to a cage of rust

          ii

          ever since the glades / ever since the moaning / Fallow, the oxen / in their impregnable
          / looming—a light struck / its rave of phlogiston / left us glowing / hot in teeth &
          marrow / lowered to shadows / we still were struggling / to permeate the impaired
          / muslin of that limp / namelessness. no one had / inspired us to bud / amidst the ghosts
          /of dense Himalayan mint. / the warring incident / of two plain bodies. a stray / -ing
          flower which answers / to the slur of being / called a kafir / a fragmented risk / when
          the sickle came / calling – gentle, pious

Scherezade Siobhan is an award-winning Indo-Rroma psychologist, writer and community catalyst who founded The Talking Compass, a therapeutic practice and counseling space created to decolonize and destigmatize mental health/illness. She has written 3 poetry collections and her latest book The Bluest Kali is currently out by Lithic Press. She can be found squeeing about militant bunnies at: WEB    TWITTER

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