Kathryn Hummel: 'Buried Even Under'
Kathryn Hummel reading ‘Buried Even Under’
‘Khachar bhitor ochin pakhi kemne ashe jay…’
-Lalon Fakir
১
Never had the taste to travel in pairs
have I : I let the sheet of each country
slip off me
Bondhu! what it used to be is not
where it once lay on this
skewed board of play : I try
moving in lines, smooth as the Queen
Each shift shows how far from arrival
am I : bountiful the time
when thought sketched the shape
of my imprint, the rearing heads of its pattern
buried even under the crust of Kushtia
or some other dust of its ancestors : inlaid
like innocent grain in the decadent earth
Loneliness is the same
wrote he : a pillar
as constant as five elements
seeing off six seasons, the peeling away
of their limited embrace
২
Down to the river to cry me
a lesser one : this way went the
flow : no ache remained
but the rainbirds seeking water
long before barsha :
saturated with the stains of
birthing, a lep skimmed
the current : in its discardment,
a cleansing
৩
Sounds heard but never recorded :
tearing masalina into fine strips: the
pull of water through the iron pump : the
crack of rat’s bone in kitten jaw : red
yarn unravelled and re-bound: the
swollen clatter of a ghungur : the
creak of the rosy descendent sun : a
break in the music for the azan : the
turning of earth under delicate hands : flames
snapping within their ring : the
foot-drop of the last to depart : or
the first to rise, following
the dark-brewed dawn
Glossary
Khachar bhitor ochin pakhi kemne ashe jay: the unknown bird in the cage, how does it fly in and out?
Bondhu: friend
Barsha: rainy season
Lep: quilt
Masalina: muslin
Ghungur: circlet of bells used in song and dance
Kathryn Hummel isthe author of four books of poems, with Lamentville (Math Paper Press),splashback and A Few Franks for Dearest Dominic (Prote[s]xt Books) forthcomingin 2019. Uncollected, her creative and scholarly works have been widelypublished/presented/translated/anthologised/ recognised. Recipient of theNEC/Meanjin Essay Writing Competition prize and the Melbourne Lord Mayor’sDorothy Porter Award, Kathryn’s writing has been nominated for the PushcartPrize, The Atlas Review’s Non-Fiction Chapbook competition and Overland’sNeilma Sidney Short Story Prize. A former writer in various residences, Kathrynholds a PhD for studies in narrative ethnography and edits non-fiction andtravel writing for Verity La.
(Photo by Omar Faruque)