An excerpt from this beautiful poem can be found in Salamander Issue 57, Fall/Winter 2023-2024
Un-Elegy, or Written Fixty-Six Steps Above Montmartre
by
Sneha Subramanian Kanta
They don’t expect me here,
in Paris. It is November
and the trees are full of smoke, my
conscious mind assimilating
the last lyric from an accordion musician,
in autumn, my favourite season. The glance
of our coarse-sand, green-path, rain-soaked
coconut trees, seasong-shells city is nearer.
This tells me distance may be hypothetical and
reminds me there are not enough poems
about Mumbai. Isn’t everything a transference,as also death? What I know after yours—
I want you to be here, too, woman-alone, traveling
to the other side of the world, breaking stereotypes.
I can hold the sky on my body, my shoulders
where I most feel its monsoon-gray weight.