Trivarna Hariharan 
Spring 2016

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Lucifer 
for DK

i.

The first note of your song is an ocean on midsummer mornings.  Illusory– a conjuring of wings learning to perch on the barks of old clematis and stories etched on bright Palmyra leaves. A ship with masts like clouds caving in and out of starless horizons, undoing themselves to seek refuge in placid constellations.

ii.

Rains visit your heart before knocking on the doors of outstretched seas. Rivulets waltz to steady staccatos that stem from Amma’s viola, their roots firmly placed in the generous lap of golden soils. Trees with azure branches become your children, nomads who whisper in your ears the secret of where they truly wish to live. Wind waves to the sun in swirls– an act of the crinoline spreading around, unlearning its contours to meet its beloved. The moon is a searchlight for birds scurrying past storms to return home in safety.

Aeons dissolve in an ambiguity of philosophers discussing the existence of numbers as time improvises still, capricious melodies.

iii.

Inside this line that runs like a lake between the city and the map, wounds meet crevices. The river learns what it feels like to be an intermediary in a world enshrouded by extremes. The vast stretch of oases that runs from everywhere to everywhere grapples with understanding the essence of its expanse.

iv.

The last time I heard of it, distance was quantifiable, measurable. That we could count the dunes in the desert, the scrubs in the foliage, the breaths of estuaries, the footsteps of escalating legatos, the seconds of clocks at the tips of our fingers.

So tell me, how many seas separate your land from mine?

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Trivarna Hariharan has published poetry at places like Textploit, On The Rusk, Allegro Poetry, Writers Asylum, Mad Swirl, Tuck Magazine and elsewhere. She serves as the editor in chief at Inklette, the poetry reader for Sprout, and is the Head Officer for Journalism at Redefy. Her first poetry collection "Home and Other Places" is slated for a 2016 release by Nivasini Publishers. She believes strongly in the power of art to bring about a change in the world.