Day Twenty-Four #Na/GloPoWriMo

Day 24 Prompt

Finally, here is our (optional) prompt for the day! In her poem, “The Flying Nightdress,” Mandakranta Sen describes something fantastical and strange that occurs while the rest of the world is asleep. The imagery of the poem is dreamlike, but the situation it describes is otherwise presented quite straightforwardly. Today, we challenge you to write your own poem that takes place at night, and describes something magical or strange that happens but that no one is awake (or around) to notice.

Happy writing!

The disappearing Dunes

 

What with the recent chatter

of ceasefire and peace

talks

the city took enough melatonin

to glue apart fit and full

so, when the dunes caravanned in

loosely

draped over camels’ backs

as if they were promises

(they could be mistaken for promises—

lying as languidly as they did on so many backs)

but, no one was awake

 

no one noticed

in the silence that digs in between the muezzin’s

calls

in the darkest hour

on camel’s backs, the dunes moved in

like stealth does, first a blip

then only tankers

 

by now, all the erstwhile sleep-deprived

had slumbered inside into the

deep

outside, the camels rose, like camels do

awkwardly slow at first

then erect like tall grass,

a wind like no wind ever seen or heard

whooshed down the streets, the souqs and the siqs

and all the erstwhile sleep-deprived

by now in their dewy-sleep

clutched their duvets and their sheets

closer to their chins

as if it were the cranked-up AC

to be blamed

for goose bumping

their dreams

 

the tighter they gripped

the quicker they slipped

Dunes so big, they past-tensed

like dunes do, a grain at first

then total disregard

for lines

in clenched fists

 

This picture was made in the Rann of Kutchch in 2017