Stay Unnamed

This is the vegetal hour —

time to listen
like a plant,

learning to combust
into an origami

of green
watchfulness,

remembering
there will be time

for leaves
to turn

into a million emerald parrots
in a lather of cloud.

But not yet.
This is the time for roots —
the stolid,
weather-beaten

innocence
of roots.

This is the time to stay unnamed.

*

This is the octopus hour,

time
to attend

to that ancient mollusk,
the heart,

parentless,
shell-less,

learning
to live

without armour,
without ancestry,

not wetly
curious,

not expanding –
not just yet —

into a wild federation
of tentacles.

This is the time to stay unnamed.

About The Author

Arundhathi Subramaniam