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This poem is taken from PN Review 117, Volume 24 Number 1, September - October 1997.

The Hole in the Wind Sujata Bhatt

The hole in the wind where the scream lives -
The scream that is the voice.

Is it only one voice?

And in the lightning did you see
his implacable face?
And did you see the blood on the knife -
the knife that cut into the wave?
Have you ever seen a wave that bleeds?

The black cat they buried alive on the beach
to raise a wind or a storm -
the black cat they buried alive on the beach
floats like a dead fish.
Yellow eyes bulge and bulge.
The black cat didn't bring a ship this time -
Well, their black cat had no power over the moon.

In the eye of the wind -
the shifting eye of the wind -
...


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