"The āytam, literally meaning 'instrument/ weapon'...is treated like a vowelless consonant."
          — A Reference Grammar of Classical Tamil Poetry, V.S. Rajam

three years ∴ predetermines tenacity of systemic ∴ flinch at pedal click

my leg fares well from time ∴ to time but the doctor ∴ orders swim therapy

invigorating the walls of ∴ lungs mouth face tick ∴ fields of possibility spleen

across the pool floor where I ∴ find foot locked ∴ in suspended discharge

*

long forms you cannot ask ∴ me if the back-click ∴ reels my synapses or the bench

flailed along cement ramparts ∴ is rickety but surely ∴ surety of firing assumes

tomato or eye corner crease honey ∴ trickle mouth hollow ∴ even pumpkin waffles a warm

familiar waft ∴ cordoning off laundry ∴ feature of spine seeking ∴into verbs and slight smoke

*

invertebrates are sorrowed by lack ∴ a counting of block backs store ∴ signals to fro against

gravity or punctuations atop margins ∴ of flesh and meniscus a pure ∴ find find find mothering

find indian cardamoms calculate ∴ mileage from kilometer gauge ∴ singing near windowsills

requires this precision requires ∴ coordinates sheltering spark in ∴ hip or heart mostly hip

*

after two falls i write a ∴ submissive call to tendering ∴ dear i need copious proboscis

extending into riverside path ∴ ways hiking trails overrun by ∴ berries cabbage patches bean

stalks excavations of harappan ∴ bronze coins esplanades polished ∴ airport runways pirated

cds sultaan bazaar flinging bangled ∴ wrists eyebrow beads or tweeze ∴ grant me flint chinks

*

equations for deriving prolapse ∴ necessitate exam latex snaps ∴ near my bum a thumb

finds boundary where it sinks ∴ feeling it yet she asks i say sure ∴ my cat sprawled on my lap

last night effaced redrew ∴ skin without t-square graphite ∴ nicks index finger flattened

blood held but because words ∴ sink softer no recoil sounds only ∴ meow meow scratches

*

surgical removal cursive smoothed ∴ acid-free but purge tongue ∴ of shooting stars first toes

conduits of gavels pulsing flickers ∴ stacked near instances such ∴ as roasting jalapenos with

asafoetida finding appa ∴ stroking unstrung badminton racquets ∴ jutting out teapoys

i carried but cannot ∴ now kick comforter edges or catfood ∴ tins printed in bold block

*

letters I found soon after window ∴ sill count go something ∴ like i dear mother

conceived of order of flickering ∴tongues appa's face drawn ∴ on blood stung kicks

but no face no tick no lung ∴ no foot jutting out little ∴ excavated from discharge

only my derived ∴ prolapse sorrowing wrist ∴ spine tweezed verbs ∴ scratch slight lack

 

 

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