Poetry International Poetry International
Poem

Malathi Maithri

Large As the World

By some turn, obscure, of the season,
Each part of my body turned
Into an animal or bird; and began
To wander away from my side

A few returned on their own
Oftentimes, they were tracked
And brought home like lost sheep
Then they left again, as if on pilgrimage
Thus, routinely straying, they began
To roam in all of Time’s expanse

Now, it is a long time since
They went their several ways
In search of water and land
I am unable to know
Or guess which part
Might now be traipsing
Down which way
On their return home, laden with the scents
And voices of different lands,
They graze all over my body,
Shuffling and rearranging my identity

Some girls who went to gather
Firewood in the jungle
Returned to say that they had sighted
My vagina as a butterfly,
Flitting about among the hills

LARGE AS THE WORLD

Close

Large As the World

By some turn, obscure, of the season,
Each part of my body turned
Into an animal or bird; and began
To wander away from my side

A few returned on their own
Oftentimes, they were tracked
And brought home like lost sheep
Then they left again, as if on pilgrimage
Thus, routinely straying, they began
To roam in all of Time’s expanse

Now, it is a long time since
They went their several ways
In search of water and land
I am unable to know
Or guess which part
Might now be traipsing
Down which way
On their return home, laden with the scents
And voices of different lands,
They graze all over my body,
Shuffling and rearranging my identity

Some girls who went to gather
Firewood in the jungle
Returned to say that they had sighted
My vagina as a butterfly,
Flitting about among the hills

Large As the World

By some turn, obscure, of the season,
Each part of my body turned
Into an animal or bird; and began
To wander away from my side

A few returned on their own
Oftentimes, they were tracked
And brought home like lost sheep
Then they left again, as if on pilgrimage
Thus, routinely straying, they began
To roam in all of Time’s expanse

Now, it is a long time since
They went their several ways
In search of water and land
I am unable to know
Or guess which part
Might now be traipsing
Down which way
On their return home, laden with the scents
And voices of different lands,
They graze all over my body,
Shuffling and rearranging my identity

Some girls who went to gather
Firewood in the jungle
Returned to say that they had sighted
My vagina as a butterfly,
Flitting about among the hills
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Gemeente Rotterdam
Nederlands Letterenfonds
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