The Dirt on Our Shoes

Peering down rabbit holes
is a sign of fever. Unable to move,
we haul logic in our wake—
the dirt on our shoes disappearing.

Unable to move, a sign of fever
the intensity of infinity—
we haul logic in our wake
where words put down roots.

The intensity of infinity—
sipping glasses of I’m done.
Where words put down roots,
everything is different/same.

Sipping glasses of I’m done,
we haul logic in our wake.
Everything is different/same
peering down rabbit holes.

Source: A pantoum composed from select words and phrases from Beneath the Sugar Sky by Seanan McGuire.

In a dark time

the eye begins to see.

/I am out of element/
/on returning home./

I have walked past belief,
……………………………..weeds that overwhelm;

one sigh stretches the ceiling
………………………………………………………………….of my mind,

a river glides out
from the stony garden
………………………………………………………………….of my spirit.

Outside, dry desire meets
………………………………………………………………a funny sadness,

waking to
bones and grass.

Source: A remixed/cut-up poem composed from only the first lines of select poems by Theodore Roethke.

Force of Repulsion

The eye an image
of the sound of water,

my voice becomes
the windshield of sorrow;

a repulsion
of electrons (like glass

shattering) separates
the mind from every

thing imaginary—
red balloons

devour words
that appear before me.

Sources: A cut-up/remixed poem composed from select lines and phrases of Electrons by Ruth Madievsky and Gravity and Center by Henri Cole.

Shloka Shankar is a freelance writer and visual artist from Bangalore, India. She loves experimenting with Japanese short-forms and found poetry alike. A Best of the Net nominee, her poems have most recently appeared in NOON: journal of the short poem, is/let, weird laburnum, UnLost Journal, Poetry WTF?!, and elsewhere. Shloka is the founding editor of Sonic Boom and its imprint, Yavanika Press.

Image banner: Marco Tedaldi via Flickr Creative Commons