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Meena Alexander

Meena Alexander’s seventh book of poetry is Birthplace with Buried Stones (TriQuarterly Books/Northwestern University Press, 2013) Her works include Illiterate Heart, winner of the PEN Open Book Award and Quickly Changing River (both published by TriQuarterly Books/Northwestern University Press). She is the author of the critically acclaimed memoir Fault Lines (one of Publishers Weekly’s Best Books of the Year) and editor of Indian Love Poems (Knopf/Everyman’s Library). Her poems have been widely translated and set to music. She has received awards from the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, the Fulbright and Rockefeller Foundations, the ACLS and the Arts Council of England. www.meenaalexander.com

By Meena Alexander

Rajasthan, Cloud Cover

by Meena Alexander

In a high wind, trees lacking leaves spill open Vowels void themselves Pity and fear subside into stones Sentences are purged. On a footpath where a rajah strolls A woman’s voice sucks commas into a nest That clings to a tree with no bark What If He Doesn’t Want You At All?— A sixties jingle,

Fall/Winter 2015

Little Burnt Holes

by Meena Alexander

Stiff legged, my head and throat so cold, I quit the jury selection room. I dreamt of a shop with red velvet curtains where hats, the color of bark lie on the counter, The hat I wanted is cut of mink, fit for a brutal season. It has prickles of fur, dirt colored like the faces

Fall/Winter 2015

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