Listener

A telegraph wire
Stretched across poles
Emitting low sound frequencies
In that pastoral quiet, off the highway

A lone multi-hued bird on the cable
Singing like the young mother
Doing her myriad chores in their mud house
Outside the village, near the edge of the muddy river

The bird singing staccato;
An enthralled shepherd-child
Half-clad, feet bare
Listening wide-eyed
To both the sounds
Separate sometimes and then mixed

In an odd symphony of the diminishing forest,
Then carried forward on the wings of the breeze
In the silent wilderness.

 

Sunil Sharma is a senior academic and writer with 18 books
published, some solo and some joint. He edits Setu.

Bill Wolak has just published his fifteenth book of poetry entitled The Nakedness Defense with Ekstasis Press. His collages have appeared recently in Naked in New Hope 2016 and The 2017 Seattle Erotic Art Festival. Mr. Wolak teaches Creative Writing at William Paterson University in New Jersey.