by Mukund Gnanadesikan
Ode to a Trauma Survivor
As you ascend
I cannot help but shake my head
amazed,
smiling, crying as I remember
where you came from,
hiding beneath a table
pinned into a cobwebbed corner.
Thinking of the past,
series of snapshots on the grass.
Now, in a motion picture,
You strut across a stage
stand ramrod straight,
raise a clenched fist.
Go ahead, seize what glimmers
Hold it in a permanent embrace
Far from starless nights of fearful past
the light is yours now, captured in your prism.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Mukund Gnanadesikan’s poetry and short stories have been published in Adelaide Literary Magazine, Ayaskala, The Bangalore Review, Calliope on the Web, The Cape Rock, Tuck Magazine, Junto Magazine, Meniscus Literary Journal, Blood and Thunder, Poets’ Choice, and Dream Noir, among others. His first novel, Errors of Omission, is due out in fall of 2020 from Adelaide Books. He lives in Napa, CA, where he practices psychiatry.