Burial
Ghosts eat flower-bodies
lain on alpines
after the violence
velocity pelts last of loosestrifes
in decibels of thorax
polyblend iconography
in molecular moss-fields
after the saints
descend from hilltops
when praise for labor
is a wreath of fig-leaves
the ether becomes wet copper
a porous tracery.
A pilgrim is not for ritual
star-blight arranges dark frays
of river alongside barbed-wires
after grief is sung as sepia-hymnals
bury the coats under pinecones.
For every ceremony
that didn’t occur
a bunch of oleanders release
in the sea, unfold,
extinguish vectors of fire.
Sneha Subramanian Kanta is a writer from Canada and author of Ghost Tracks (Louisiana Literature Press). She is the recipient of the inaugural Vijay Nambisan Fellowship (2019). She was the Charles Wallace Fellow writer-in-residence (2018-19) at the University of Stirling. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in The Puritan, Savant-Garde, Quiddity, The Shore Poetry, and elsewhere. She is the founding editor of Parentheses Journal.