Bio
Sambhu R is a bilingual poet and academic from Kayamkulam, Kerala whose self-conscious encounters with poetry flared into a fully-fledged love affair in his early twenties. He is currently working as Assistant Professor of English at N.S.S. College, Pandalam. His poems in English have appeared in Wild Court, Bombay Literary Journal, Muse India, Borderless Journal, Setu, and The Chakkar, among others.
Sambhu Ramachandran
The Invention of Fire
Spurred by the wind, the blinds
gallop wildly over the sill,
their hidden hooves echoing all night.
The paperweight holds down
restless sheets of paper
with the single-mindedness of a Sumo wrestler.
I look outside and see dry leaves
waltzing down shafts of moonlight,
joined in a loose embrace: let go,
they whisper to the newest sprouts
as if the stages of growth were a rigmarole.
Now is the perfect time for starting a fire
that won't easily die down: in this room
where silence is a fugitive, I rub words together.
Stray sparks set ablaze imagination's tinder:
from page to page, a poem spreads its fire.