Losing Ground

After Hokusai’s Breaking Waves (Ink on silk)

 

The sea and the cliff

embrace like wrestlers,

he is   merciless

gutting him with his waves.

Above, the sky is sparse,

and the trees   are blurring in the wind.

 

What of the lake

at the foot of this cliff?

 

An audience of clouds gather

and the water leaves in ripples.

 

A village watches from a distance.

Author: Varun U. Shetty

Varun U. Shetty is a writer and critical care physician. He grew up in Mumbai and lives with his partners in Shaker Heights, Ohio. His work has appeared or forthcoming in Frontier, Five South, Cleaver, Hobart, Healing Muse, Complete Sentence, and others. He won the 2022 F. Sean Hodge Prize for Poetry in Medicine. You can read more about him at www.varunushetty.com.

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