‘A silhouette of things’: Two poems by K.S. Subramanian
Photo: Karan Madhok
Poetry: ‘In a year its ambience malodorous / Inch of space making way to concrete. / Green unseated by thick red brick’
Snow view
A thick white sheet of snow
Shrouds the concrete, goblets
Of dew tossed by the gentle wind;
It’s an alluring sight until I step out
When cold gust stings the ribs.
I shiver in shock:
A defensive bird
Closing its feathers,
taut and safe.
*
The changing city
In a day the city has a new face
A magician pulling a rabbit out of a hat;
In a year its ambience malodorous
Inch of space making way to concrete.
Green unseated by thick red brick,
Vegetation edged out by milling crowds,
They move in, shrinking the city’s arc
Squeezing out the lifeline of springs,
The new skyscraper with mighty brow,
Vaporizes the seeds in clouds.
Its spires point to a silhouette of things,
Masonry snuffing out the glow.
Eyes glued to the wall, in a stampede
Of fears, clutching at the reed.
***
K.S. Subramanian has published two volumes of poetry, Ragpickers and Treading on Gnarled Sand through the Writers Workshop, Kolkata, India. He is a retired Senior Assistant Editor from The Hindu and lives in Chennai, India. His poems and short stories have appeared in Museindia, Kitaab, Indian Ruminations, Different Truths and Borderless Journal. His essays and blogs can be found at boloji.com.
