[ The Smell of Ants...]

Hari Alluri

The smell of ants being born surrounds us—the serenity in constant work, 
a stream's whitewater aspirations, without protection. It's not the same as the fog
from above: higher tide, skyscrapers for buoys. 

                                        *        

            Morning here: tarnished silver
            cutlery on earthen pots. The language I lost—

            every time someone weeps, 
            a poem in English.

—for Mohsen Emadi

"The second fragment in this poem interpolates a line by Mohsen Emadi that has haunted me since I heard it read at the 2014 AWP Conference. This poem is part of a longer sequence to be included in the chapbook The Promise of Rust, forthcoming from Mouthfeel Press."

Hari M. Alluri is a poet, co-founding editor of Locked Horn Press, and the author of Carving Ashes (CiCAC). His work appears or will appear in the following journals and anthology, among others: Cutthroat, CV2, Dismantle (Thread Makes Blanket), Kartika and Poetry International.