Cat's Cradle

Abstract

Cat's Cradle Amit Majmudar (bio) My hands holdthe pattern that holds them fast. Your hands pluck the string to make the musicthat frees me up at last. We lift awayentanglements we trade like tongues. The cat in my crècheis your name on my breath. To loveis to be bound like this and freed like this. The pattern that weaves myhands together blinks and opensin your hands, a new dreamcatcher with you the dream inside it. Isn't it beautifulto need like this? [End Page 488] Pattern crisscrossespattern, hands swooping in to rescue hands. They never touchin their mercurial aerial dance. One loopof string strings fate along with elusively feline ingenuity,you and me in patternafter pattern recurring while our Cheshire love with its nine livesand sleepy topaz eyes lies in itsshapeshifting cradle purring. [End Page 489] Amit Majmudar AMIT MAJMUDAR's next poetry collection is What He Did in Solitary (Knopf, 2020), and his next novel is Soar (Penguin Random House India, 2020). His most recent books are a verse translation of the Bhagavad-Gita, Godsong (Knopf, 2018) and a novel, Sitayana (Penguin Random House India, 2019). Copyright © 2019 Amit Majmudar