Shirin Jindani
Portrait of a Man at his Computer
His fingers peck the keyboard, scratching letters scattered by the water's edge, pulling words from behind the glass. Autumn suspended in a coffee cup.
A light drizzle taps the metal roof of a chicken shack. The corrugated
sound of processed thoughts falling in Rio, Paris, Vancouver, New York.
In a glassy pond phrases swim. They cover his image; drown him with their brilliance. Ideas metastasize on a plastic disc.
Knot. A tourniquet of paper leaves tightens. He cradles the word in his chest, breathes its smell of damp hay; feels the silent k embedded in his lung.
Not. The characters he will never write. He is reeling in his memories. A wide-mouthed frog tugs at his regrets.
No: a morpheme to kill the pain. He stumbles now, fumbling over the
keys; stabbing letters in the dark. Tumour. A slip of the hand; had meant to write Humour.
A light drizzle taps the metal roof of a chicken shack. The corrugated
sound of processed thoughts falling in Rio, Paris, Vancouver, New York.
In a glassy pond phrases swim. They cover his image; drown him with their brilliance. Ideas metastasize on a plastic disc.
Knot. A tourniquet of paper leaves tightens. He cradles the word in his chest, breathes its smell of damp hay; feels the silent k embedded in his lung.
Not. The characters he will never write. He is reeling in his memories. A wide-mouthed frog tugs at his regrets.
No: a morpheme to kill the pain. He stumbles now, fumbling over the
keys; stabbing letters in the dark. Tumour. A slip of the hand; had meant to write Humour.
Shirin Jindani was born in London and lives in France. She teaches English to statisticians and keeps bees. In addition to writing poetry she is working on a collection of short stories set in locations as far apart as the North of England, Zanzibar and SE Asia.
Page(s) 85
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