shloka-swallowed hope - an erasure diptych
swallowed hope: an erasure diptych

∞

For all the good it did

It was me.                                                        Should I go on?
The dark doesn’t affect
your nose.                                                      Never wake up

………………………………………halfway
………………………………………down
………………………………………the
………………………………………stairs.

A fraction of an inch—

………………………………………………………………………………silent, unmoving wires,

your hands tangled up in
a mistake.

∞

shloka-what they had to say
what they had to say: digital visual poem

∞

just to be sure

fall from the ceiling / until you’re free;
save / a few seconds / trapped
in the center of dawn, / struggling
to trace / a lungful of air

∞

shloka-sage advice
sage advice: erasure poem

∞

Something/Nothing

The night of the moon
has many hundred hours.
Eyes open (discovered sleeping),
hands unclasp

in the wilderness
of simplicity and symmetry.

What day? What now?
Words fail when you hear
nothing.

Go back into the [expanse of]
blazing light until sorrow breaks in—

cast your mind forward
to the time when you

float
up
into
the
blue.

Something seems to have occurred.
Something has seemed to occur.
Something must happen in the world

if I am to move again.
That is the danger.

I am clear, then dim, then gone.
That is what I mean. That is all I mean.

 

Shloka Shankar

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/forthcoming in Moonchild Magazine, Frameless Sky, weird laburnum, Bones, NOON: journal of the short poem, and elsewhere. Shloka is the founding editor of Sonic Boom, its imprint Yavanika Press, and Senior Editor at Human/Kind Journal. Twitter: @shloks89. Facebook: shloks89.

‘For all the good it did’ and ‘just to be sure’ were remixed/cut-out poetry from the book, The Graduation by Christopher Pike. ‘Something/Nothing’ is a cut-up remixed poem composed from words in Happy Days by Samuel Beckett. ‘swallowed hope’ is an erasure poem using Things to Do in the Belly of the Whale by Dan Albergotti. ‘sage advice’ is an erasure poem using The Graduation by Christopher Pike.

Cover art credit: Cropped extract of author’s (Shloka Shankar).