Grief

Do not bury it.

Stash it between your fingers
and in inconsolable hours
let it run.

There will be nights
when you will see even steel
dissolve under your touch.

“Grief” from How Many Countries Does the Indus Cross by Akhil Katyal (The Indian Poetry Collective, 2019). Reprinted by permission of the author.

Akhil Katyal is a writer based in Delhi. He is the author of two books of poems, the forthcoming How Many Countries Does the Indus Cross, which won the Editor’s Choice Award by The Great Indian Poetry Collective, and Night Charge Extra.