Today

I was reading my book by the window
waiting for you when I noticed one flower
of those you’d artfully splayed had snapped.
Like a limp wrist the orange gerbera hung, and over
my knuckle it vented a beige gunge. As I snipped
the stem for a smaller vase, the glow
of the radiant petals was too much. Time lapped
me round, the day went unseized.
For this was no opportunity I could have missed;
only the lonely moment which blazed
in my hand, unplucked. Like many,
I had forgotten that time isn’t money
and I don’t need always to be on the move
within the world you’ve shown me how to love.

from The Million-Petalled Flower of Being Here (Bloodaxe, 2019), © Vidyan Ravinthiran 2019, used by permission of the author and the publisher

Vidyan Ravinthiran is a poet, critic and scholar from the UK. He is known for his range of work exploring his Sri Lankan Tamil ...

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