THE SHADOW READER IS MEASURING
He whips out a notched ruler and mumbles
numbers on to a tattered square-lined jotter,
adds, subtracts, reaches up behind his head
without looking back, pulls out a scroll and
reads. He shakes his head, sucks his teeth.
The shadow unrolls, dissolves and starts to seep
into the cracks where the linoleum is missing
or scratched. It goes from black to purple,
becomes detached, swims away from my feet,
changes to fish, ant, elephant, continent,
writes itself in five languages, ten scripts,
grows wings. It is Gilgamesh, Mahabharat, epic.
It belongs to the soil and the air. It never looks back.
From Shadow Reader by Imtiaz Dharker, published Bloodaxe Books. Available to order with 25% off using your member code here.
** Summer Book Box due out in June. Members get 25% off Books **
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