Yamini Pathak

Even eagles stand down
when kites come out
to play

They ride the currents
of warm orange winds,
tails streaming like comets
in the face of the setting sun

In the old days
dragons and snakes
and other fanciful shapes
wheeled and dipped,
fluttered and tugged

on strings razor-edged
coated in glass, ground fine
to a glistening, sharp powder

Poems in the wind
engaged in battle, rubbing
up against each other
in violent love-making,
slashing and sawing until
the snap

of string set one free
snatched heavenward
a sunspot,
mere speck in the eye
of the earthbound

Once the sport of kings
now only a fancy for children
and rooftop poets
who dream in the gathering
dusk

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About the Author:

Yamini Pathak is a former software engineer who has recently started writing poetry and short fiction. Her writing has appeared in Literary Mama, Indian newspaper, The Hindu, and education portal Noodle.com. She was born in India, and she lives in West Windsor, New Jersey.