excerpt

“How to peel shame from Elegy” 

There is no shame in elegy.

Forget the omen, embrace an oath to hem bone with crypt.
A pilgrim weaves the hours into psalm-beads, unhears all sirens.

After sinew, feather-conch with clement and bauxite residue.
Ghost in midwinter walks along the treeline. Ghost with fish-mouth.
No water, hymn, or holy blighted star. Mercury eats pith.

Eat semantics—— or mercy. Animal without petition rises
in the field. Objects in mechlin. A window of willow trees.
Weep. Wind as spectacle, interweave of constellation and gravity.

Become a cathedral, mourner beside a grave.

Intercede the height of a river, width of a hill and catenary.
Curl laurel leaves to build a basket. The sounds outside—— puddle-blue,
cornflower blue, and zaffre. Dirigible body of chevron.

Permit the gladiola its echo. The patterns of animal and glacier.
Ghost in a landscape of limestone. Ghost in a cabin with an open door.

Collect turnip bulbs from under the soil. A range of demarcation between
animal and farm. Firebreak where the nettle grows. Minnow and blackberry.
Ectoplasm. Acid rain over the organs of forests. Membrane of petrichor.

Let the sky recite prayer. Unspool of tree branches or metal.
Hunger before a funeral. Monochrome of lace, ritual, and urn.

What ceaseless reflection is this? Lilac, orchard, and tinsel remnants.
The soft orbit of vertigo. Last of sun scattering over a row of pine trees.

There is no shame in elegy.

ABOUT THE POET

Sneha Subramanian Kanta is an academician and multi-genre writer from Canada. She is the author of five chapbooks, including Every Elegy Is A Love Poem (Variant Lit, forthcoming) and Ghost Tracks (Louisiana Literature, 2020). An award-winning writer, her work has been supported by several institutions including Ontario Arts Council, Tin House, The Charles Wallace Trust, The Vijay Nambisan Trust, and British Council. She is one of the founding editors of Parentheses Journal. 

www.snehasubramaniankanta.com

NOTES

Work in this chapbook originally appeared in Hunger Mountain, Ruminate Magazine, Prism Review, Contemporary Verse 2, Sundog Lit, Quiddity, trampset, Up The Staircase Quarterly, and Middle House Review. “Faith” won the Nostrovia! Press Poetry Contest in 2020. “I Cannot Define Beauty with the Word Beauty” won the 2020 EX/POST Magazine Microgrant.

OTHER BOOKS

Every Elegy Is A Love Poem (Variant Lit, forthcoming)

Ghost Tracks (Louisiana Literature Press 2020)

ABOUT THE COVER ARTIST

Nicci Mechler (she/her) splits her time between exploring, spinning tales (sometimes yarn), bookbinding, printmaking, and drawing. Her art has appeared in shows around the world and lives in numerous private & museum collections. She lives in Cincinnati, Ohio with a pack of rescue animals specializing in troublemaking and joy. Current obsessions: witchy poems, embroidery, gaming with friends, printmaking, and folktales.

The cover is based on ancestral clothing, patterns pulled from photos of familial clothing from Kanta’s family and made into an illustration. Each is printed by hand, handbound, and trimmed.