Carole Glasser Langille
Memoir
for Vijay Seshadri
Our infractions
are our wealth. Our naked fires, our absolute advantage. Mistake
is such a mild
misdemeanour. Did mine— inveigling, intruding—
make me radioactive?
See how carbon smudges sky: charred grey
on curved walls. To uncover
even part of our story – sifting through
coal and ash, isn’t that luck
enough? We’re better
than our misunderstandings. Better
than our unequal standings. When we’re broken,
singed: there’s suppleness,
wakefulness. As the prayer inside our name
crumbles. Isn’t that what pity’s for?
You say, “The real story of a life
is the story of its humiliations.” But why look back
when we’re seized by even
a fraction of joy. Not just someday. Everyday.
Now. Right now.
Page(s) 193-194
magazine list
- Features
- zines
- 10th Muse
- 14
- Acumen
- Agenda
- Ambit
- Angel Exhaust
- ARTEMISpoetry
- Atlas
- Blithe Spirit
- Borderlines
- Brando's hat
- Brittle Star
- Candelabrum
- Cannon's Mouth, The
- Chroma
- Coffee House, The
- Dream Catcher
- Equinox
- Erbacce
- Fabric
- Fire
- Floating Bear, The
- French Literary Review, The
- Frogmore Papers, The
- Global Tapestry
- Grosseteste Review
- Homeless Diamonds
- Interpreter's House, The
- Iota
- Journal, The
- Lamport Court
- London Magazine, The
- Magma
- Matchbox
- Matter
- Modern Poetry in Translation
- Monkey Kettle
- Moodswing
- Neon Highway
- New Welsh Review
- North, The
- Oasis
- Obsessed with pipework
- Orbis
- Oxford Poetry
- Painted, spoken
- Paper, The
- Pen Pusher Magazine
- Poetry Cornwall
- Poetry London
- Poetry London (1951)
- Poetry Nation
- Poetry Review, The
- Poetry Salzburg Review
- Poetry Scotland
- Poetry Wales
- Private Tutor
- Purple Patch
- Quarto
- Rain Dog
- Reach Poetry
- Review, The
- Rialto, The
- Second Aeon
- Seventh Quarry, The
- Shearsman
- Smiths Knoll
- Smoke
- South
- Staple
- Strange Faeces
- Tabla Book of New Verse, The
- Thumbscrew
- Tolling Elves
- Ugly Tree, The
- Weyfarers
- Wolf, The
- Yellow Crane, The