Sea break

The horizon was pencilled in then smudged—
what you saw of it was through the sand the wind
drew seaward in a white, chiffony curl.
It was time to have, as they say, a conversation about us
while the air turned gritty as a documentary
and the goldfinch bouncing above the rail
brought back last night and all my lust.
And so we spoke but also watched together
this box-set of astonishing weather:
brown iron rusted to the eye-feel of chorizo;
a shattered packet of basmati rice
floating in with the tide which turned deep taupe
as the gusty beach was throbbing silver—
the elements taking on each other’s colour.

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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