Cold Cloth of Sentience - Mukund Gnanadesikan

Measure, cut, bring up the too-long hem
of black linen consciousness.

The cracked hide of my curiosity, uncovered,
questions the wisdom of sunlight.

Surely all this imagery was never meant
to fall upon us, absorb into our cells?

Awareness is pendulous, with a scimitar’s acuity,
all too much, unbearable, this rising human blood-tide

that stains our retinas, punctures our tympanic membranes.
Is it wrong for an apostate to beseech a dormant god

demanding rain, a night devoid of bullets, answers to questions
my quavering tongue has never dared to ask?

Originally slated for publication with Journal of Short Fiction 2023

Mukund Gnanadesikan is the author of the 2020 novel Errors of Omission (Adelaide Books), the 2023 children’s picture book Clarence and Elroy (Pen-It Publications), and the poetry chapbook Petit Morts: Meditations on Love and Death (available for pre-order from Finishing Line Press.) When not composing stories and verse, he practices medicine in California.