TO SLIDE BETWEEN
To slide between the shadows
and become as one with the dark
To enfold within the waves
and become as one with the sea
To filter in with the haze
and become as one with the air
To vanish into the sun
and become as one with the light
To sense the dark the light the air the ocean
and be as one with the ever
…
To word oneself in the air
and become as one with the silence
To move fingers at the skin
and become as one with the touch
To feel the heart in rhythm
and become as one with the blood
To know the world in motion
and become as one with the flux
To unbond every atom
and become as one with matter
To sense the evolving ever
and be as one with the all
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in other news
Port Blair again
the utter swelter box
the streets a bath in heat
the soggiest shirt in every street
...
with lots of pleasant ambles
yet, for obvious reasons,
the best are along the cooling water
from here, on Marine Hill
around to Dignabad fish market
and maybe on to the Aberdeen Jetty
or from here
past the Port just down below
all the way round the sea-hugging Foreshore Road
out over the sea bridge
past the Chatham Saw Mill
the last of the once-many saw mills
British-built and enduringly destructive
past the mill
to the ferry for Bombooflat
across the bay
[tomorrow]
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in other news
next thing to do
Tuesday morning
is Cellular Jail
Colonial nightmare
designed by the British specifically to be fearsomely brutal
scene of multiple martyrdoms
and most certainly very forgotten North of the English Channel
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in other news
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I want it, the rattleless fit
want, bit by bit
to shrink and smooth myself down to it
the rattleless fit
want blocks within blocks, grey within grey
time within time, shade within shade
snug as a brick in a block
a line in a grid
a note in a wad
I want it,
to fit easily
inside the me
i used to be
and, bit by bit
shrink and smooth myself down to it
the rattleless fit
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in other news
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first the bad news
i don’t know where the bus goes
then the good news
the destination on the bus is in the western alphabet
[unlike in, say, Maharashtra]
then some more bad news
the destination is
Garacharama
and i’ve never seen that word
and don’t know where it is
yet further bad news is
i need a bus
it was a long walk here
out to what seems to be called Chatham
and i am very VERY hot
because it is very VERY hot
an absolute swelter
hotter than it ever gets in England or Canada
yet the good news
maybe the best news i can have
is that i am, Chatham is, at the end of a head
so the bus can’t go anywhere too far from the centre of Port Blair
though i can’t know how far that might be
and my mental map is sketchy at best
and the other news is that well
i’m gonna get on the bus whatever
and see what happens next
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the further good news is that when
eventually
i get off the bus
guessing it would now veer away from the centre
a smiling old woman said
“where do you want to go?”
and i said
“the centre”
and she said
“its a long way to the centre
but its back up there
and down the hill”
...
To Slide Between is a beautiful poem, Jem. Thank you!
its a long way to the centre. indeed. but one can only see it from the edges.