C’est la view & Losing it
C'est la view
- for Simar Puneet
starlings on the flats
toward the horizon
whatever makes them
rise and land again
is no less
miraculous than
their murmurs in flight
bells from the church
at the junction
where the road ends
ideas get
into my head
the way the purple
sunbird darts across
my field of vision
from one unseen perch
to another
out of sight
just so you sit
kiss the rim of
your tea cup and tilt
until the liquid
hits your lips
occurrences
overlap along
an edge you can
expand and contract
to any degree and
never find a point
go ahead try
to put that cup
down and get on
with your life
meanwhile after
millennia
of frogs lizards
insects grain and
carrion the red-
naped ibis wakes
one morning with
inexplicable
thirst for nectar
from the flowers of
the silk-cotton tree
there is a sign there
that i cannot read
without my glasses
which i have no
inclination
at the moment
to put on
Losing it
- after Vinay Ghodgeri
praise the messenger
of loss as one
who tests what
you believe
is possible
to live in your
house with neither
roof nor walls
to eat with no food
drink with no water
love with no need
of an other
only then when there
is no back to ache
any longer
can you bear
the weight of
that message on
◊
camels in an
endless desert
carry nothing
even with
a pilgrim
on their hump
the landscape too
is analogous
◊
when i am hit
the matter means
come across
more clearly
water wends a
course from high to low
easy to ride
the current to
the ocean though
where rivers end no
drop to slake your thirst
seeds fall wherever
they’re dispersed
upstream the
weeds with thorns grow
thickest near the source
◊
love take out
your knife and
slice me just
get it over with
blood goes on in
every direction
if you really
dig enough
look any-
where at all
the organ struck
was empty long
before it stopped
but whatever light
was lit there lives
in the glint of the
blade you cleaved
the flesh that kept
me hidden from
plant that rose
shed of the stalk
hand that holds the
harvest also led
the plow that
yoked the ox
when i can draw no
farther string me up
by the feet from a
line in the mud
◊
talk all you
want about
precarity
and judgment
i see a sunrise
that is good
rice grass high
in the paddies puts
a year into
the village
cattle groom the fields
left fallow
belch cud trail
leashes down the road
whole rear ends
smudged with dung
as if aware
of symbiosis
egrets ride their spines
and let that shit
bring dinner
Poems by Zachary Tichaeur Bushnell and photographs by Vinay Ghodgeri.
Zachary Tichauer Bushnell writes poetry and prose. His poems have featured in The Punch Magazine 2023 Poetry Issue, Poetry at Sangam, Platform Magazine, and the Fox Chase Review. His fiction and nonfiction have appeared in National Geographic Traveller India, The Bombay Literary Magazine, Usawa Literary Review, Time Out Delhi, and South Asia Journal. Zachary lives in India, where he works as an editor and educator, plus runs swim lessons for children and adults.
Vinay Ghodgeri is an artist who works across the mediums of photography, painting, and film. His photographs have been exhibited in a group show called ‘Eesoterikos’ at the Siilk Gallery (Athens, Greece) and published in the Memoir Journal, New Horizons Magazine and on the book cover of ‘Violence Performed’. His films have been screened at the Mumbai International Film Festival, Bangalore International Film Festival, Palm Springs International Film Festival (USA), La Alternativa Festival de Cinema Independente (Barcelona, Spain), Beyond Bollywood (Stuttgart, Germany), Festival International Signes de Nuit (Paris, France). He has exhibited his paintings and artworks in Auroville, Pune and Goa. His novella titled ‘Love as an Antidote to Despair’ with Ukiyoto Publishing is available on Amazon. Vinay lives in Goa, India and is currently working on his latest film, titled ‘A Shadow Rising’.
