Poems Matter ~ Arundhathi Subramaniam

It was snobbery perhaps

(or habit)

             to want

            perforation,

 to choose cotton, for instance,

with its coarse asymmetries,

over polyester

or unctuous rayon.

But this, I suppose,

is what we were looking for all along -

            this weave

            that dares to embrace

                        air,

this hush of linen, these frayed edges,

these places where thought

runs

                        threadbare,

where colours bleed into

something vastly blue

like sky,

these tatters

at peace almost

with the great outrage

of not being around.

It's taken a long time

to understand

poems matter

because they have holes.

~ Arundhathi Subramaniam

When God is a Traveler