The Amnesiac Asylee
by Sujash Purna
THE AMNESIAC ASYLEE
by Sujash Purna
A flight for forgetting
inside a sleight of hand, a tupelo
silhouette, the gray canyons
in mud gowns, enameled forsythia.
A polaroid taking a photo
of abandonment as if a family tree
made of lost people.
I am their child, the Dravidian,
and the dead claim me
as their child, but I grew wings
wide enough to cover my body
inside a sleight of hand, inside
a blurred silhouette, I can hide
well, into my flight of forgetting
I am as faithful as
a boomerang—
I’ll deflect my enemies
just to come back
and embrace them.
They say I am the love child
of despair and elation,
never wholly belonging to one.
A sky refugee, I keep flying,
knowing no land is my home.
I nestle inside,
inside a sleight of hand, inside
a blurred silhouette I reside.