by Oormila Vijayakrishnan Prahlad

in my letterbox I find
Yuki’s postcard from Japan
she’s floating in a snowglobe
of apple blossoms
in the Okinawa countryside
“Stay safe, stay well,”
she writes
“I have this beauty
to keep me sane.”

I walk back to self-captivity
thinking of a world held siege
shedding petal by petal
truncated lives
wrenched from the arms
of loved ones
dispersed like pollen
in the wind

it’s autumn in my hemisphere
the maples moult
gold, rust, sienna
as I watch through my studio slats
the hours thaw
and diffuse into the night

somewhere in the growing stillness
the sinking net of isolation
briefly lifts, and I spy
the distant buds of spring
Yuki’s fantasia
of apple blossoms
fluttering
its music velveteen
on my feverish skin.

Oormila Vijayakrishnan Prahlad is an Australian artist, poet, and improv pianist of Indian heritage. She holds a Masters degree in English and is a member of The North Shore Poetry Project, and Authora Australis. Her recent art and poetry in response to the Covid crisis have been published in Dwell Time, The Pangolin Review, and Star 82 Review, and are forthcoming in Parentheses, The Spring Creek Anthology, Otoliths, and elsewhere.

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