Eye of the Storm, by Anita Nahal

Fundamental Pictures, by Lorette C. Luzajic (Canada) 2019

Eye of the Storm

Sometimes I sit at its periphery. Quite singular. Only floating around are lazy cockatoo waspfish. So lazy, so lazy, mistaken for dead leaves. Feuille morte! Charlotte Bronte got me with, “I found no pleasure in the silent trees, the falling fir-cones, the congealed relics of autumn, russet leaves, swept by past winds in heaps, and now stiffened together.”  I wipe the irk from the corner of the eye. The eye keeps flickering, and I pry it open to check for any further irk or two wedged or floating somewhere, tiny fibers in the vitreous humor. A mining torch strapped to my forehead beams direct. Sometimes if a deeper cleaning is obligatory or indispensable, I step inside in rain boots lest the aqueous humor in the assembly line is in overtime. Toofans kind of have that reputation. Like ones inside unpretentious hearts and crowded minds. My periscope is always handy in case I get pulled into another attribute where the eye rubbernecks at me and the squall is kind of nameless, undefined, unrefined. This eye is unusual, can’t see with it, can’t place it in a face, can’t gift it to anyone. Can’t take it off. Can’t let it have time out even in an open pandora’s box. It keeps steady at 15-20 blinks per minute. Disturbing. Annoying. Flirting. All but sleeping. Unlike the blissful calm of boats docked in a row in a marina at dawn.

Anita Nahal

*Feuille morte: Frech for dead leaf * Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre, 1847 *Vitreous humor: a colorless, transparent, gel-like substance that fills the space between the lens and the retina within the eye *Aqueous humor; a clear liquid in the front of the eye *Toofan: Hindi word for storm

This poem is from Anita's upcoming collection, Espresso Bar.

Anita Nahal is an Indian American poet, flash fictionist, children’s writer and columnist. Anita has two books of poetry, one of flash fictions, four for children and three edited anthologies to her credit. Her third book of poetry is What’s wrong with us Kali women, by Kelsay Books, August 2021. Two of her books are prescribed in a course on multiculturalism and immigration at the University of the Utrecht, The Netherlands. Anita teaches at the University of the District of Columbia, Washington DC. Anita is the daughter of Sahitya Akademi award winning Indian novelist, Chaman Nahal and educationist, Sudarshna Nahal. Anita resides in the US with her son, daughter in law and golden doodle. More on her at:  https://anitanahal.wixsite.com/anitanahal