TOUCH & SKY

- Poetry -

Rakshithaa V. Jaiganesh, United States (born in India)

TOUCH: 

After all this my dampened hands 

are still strangers to me; I scrub the 

fingers firm and clean and cast them far away from my body. The summer 

gurgles through the walls & seeps into my skin. The daylight always moves 

in spades, in quick & native abandon. So I let my damp hands starve for a more 

patient night. The hot dusk thaws into a mirage, springs forth like the young monsoon.

SKY: 

I teach myself the word1for horizon and it 

bleeds out of itself. The word is touch-sky, 

as though, in that one moment, the world 

could be gossamer. As though this language 

could stand at high tide, salt floods tearing through 

my mouth; living 

as though I could trace the soft, 

dark lip the sun must silently return to 

and somehow learn what homeland means 

through smaller betrayals of the tongue. 

1 There are many words for horizon in Tamil, one of which is த ொடுவானம் (thodu-vaanam). This word, quite literally, means “touch-sky” or “sky that can be touched.”

Rakshithaa V. Jaiganesh is a rising college freshman who loves to write poetry, and she tries her very best to write a new poem every day. She's previously been published in Eucalyptus Lit. When she isn't writing, you can find her playing piano, singing, or being with family :)