Four Seasons, Chicago
Downtown, buildings have muted
their eyes. A pigeon pecks a piece
of chipped Chagall mosaic,
sits on a moment
that has a flower in it.
Assemblage is an ancient art.
In my country, women sew
silences in colorful cloth.
Here, the city swirls in broken
chroma. The river pulses
blue at the waist. I search
for joy in slashed
columns of sky. Sift debris for new
gods: brighter, plastic, more
elastic. Become a smoker, add
to the greedy river. Look
how it meanders, gathers
wilting bits to make a whole.
KANDALA SINGH is a writer from New Delhi; currently at the MFA program in Creative Writing (Poetry) at the University of Pittsburgh. Her poems appear in Rattle, Eclectica, Hindustan Times,and Frontier Poetry, among other places. She is the recipient of a Dietrich Fellowship from the University of Pittsburgh, a Maat Scholarship from the Community of Writers Conference, and a Katherine Bakeless Contributor Award in Poetry from the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference. You can find her at: https://www.kandalasingh.com.