only one soldier on the porch, and only for a moment.
Army is a visiting ferris wheel, he whispered. A carousel.
The carousel’s accordion-clefted orbit arrives regardless of the hour.
Then we are inside a world of soldiers to look at, the yielding work of paving stone —
dandelion friend — the work an empty ashram does to invading soldiers.
Hari Malagayo Alluri is a poet, community facilitator and founding editor of Locked Horn Press. His short film Pasalubong: Gifts from the Journey was produced by the NFB. An editorial collective member for Rain Zine and Stay Solid: A Radical Handbook for Youth, he edited Proma Tagore’s Language is not the Only Thing that Breaks. Carving Ashes, Hari’s first collection, is published by CiCAC Press.