Vismai Rao

Ode to This and That

As a child the world before nouns a chaos
swirling with thises
& thats: bad manners

cloaked in four-letter suits.
Not enough is said in praise

of you who do our vulgar work of pointing.
We grow to learn that some words

like cellophane are meant to remain invisible,
existing

only to carry the specific burden of another.
Like this body:

a perennial carrier
of what’s bodiless inside—

Magnanimous guides
showing us where to look. Alter Egos. Twin Moons.

Illuminating. Despite having no light
to call their own—

________________________________________________________________________________________

Vismai Rao's poems appear or are forthcoming in Salamander, RHINO, Rust + Moth, Glass: A Journal of Poetry, Pithead Chapel, Psaltery & Lyre, SWWIM and elsewhere. Her work has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize, Best of the Net and the Orison Anthology. She serves as Poetry Editor for The Night Heron Barks.