The Abduction: poem
Lines composed in the Thar desert, six years after India’s nuclear test
1
It’s been six years since angels crossed the road at springtime.
Six years ago the Cherwell carried boats of scrolls whose black letters sliced through ivory sheets. We undid the blue ribbons and the words fell onto our feet, cutting our flesh. We bled. Our feet caked, shards of T’s and Y’s stuck out as we ran home in a sapphire meadow knee deep in water, grey spires suffocating as the wings came down in millions around us.
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You can read this poem in the Beloit Poetry Journal. It took almost a decade to finish. Thanks to Lee Sharkey and John Rosenwald, then editors at the Beloit Journal for all their editorial guidance and support! https://www.bpj.org/contributors/mehta-leeya Please think about supporting this wonderful publication. The poem was nominated by the editors for a Pushcart Prize and Best New American Poets.