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Two Poems 

Diya Chaudhuri

Abstract of Thesis Presented to the Graduate School of the University of Florida in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Master of Fine Arts

These poems are best analyzed not in terms of what they contain,
but by the negative spaces that envelop them.
Issues you will find implicit herein include
the decline of the American bison, the range of metals
available for use as cutlery to the widows
of early American fishermen,
Paul Robeson’s forearms,
and an alternate spelling of cummerbund
           (kummerbund)
which translates from the German
to “ribbon of sorrow.”
At some point during the reading of these poems,
you will likely feel Spanish moss at your forehead
and be gripped by a wholly rational fear of chiggers.
You will not find a villanelle anywhere within this collection.
The double-sestina can be located in said negative space.


Annulled

Like a shiver has been cut from the heart
and the heart sewn back
as though no one would notice.
The cat just a quiet purring
in the far room.
There are things that happen to a woman
that she feels most
in the ankles. When you stand,
the whole weight of you bears down
and you consider each strand of hair,
your milkless breasts,
whether you need clothes anymore,
a watch, or a phone, unringing itself
minute by minute.