Original Poetry: ‘An Archive of Consonants’ by Itisha Giri

An Archive of Consonants

क/ka

cud n. partly digested food returned from the first stomach of ruminants to the mouth for further chewing.

words like cud, cud-like words must be ruminated

ख/kha

missing

ग/ga

gadlfy n. a fly that bites livestock, especially a horsefly, warble fly, or botfly.

a good gadfly returns to its prey

घ/gha

having gone astray

ङ/ŋa

no longer possessed or retained

च/cha

chinaberry n. a tall tree which bears fragrant lilac flowers and yellow berries, native to Asia and Australasia.

an emerald-bellied hummingbird gets drunk on the endocarp of a Chinaberry

छ/chha

falters

ज/ja

jetsam n. unwanted material or goods that have been thrown overboard from a ship and washed ashore, especially material that has been discarded to lighten the vessel.

a ship-like body expels aspiration like jetsam

झ/jha

floundering

ञ/ña

unable to find one’s way

ट/ta

temper v. act as a neutralizing or counterbalancing force to (something)

a chord is tempered with

ठ/tha

no longer belonging to

ड/da

disembodied v. to divest (a soul, spirit, etc.) of a body.

sound is disembodied

ढ/dha

not used to good purpose, as opportunities, time; wasted

ण/ṇa

distracted; distraught; desperate; hopeless

त/ṭa

no longer possible or open to

थ/ṭha

thaw v. (of a part of the body) become warm enough to stop feeling numb.

an ear thaws under duress

द/ḍa

the d. used with an adjective to refer to those people who are of the type described.

the phonemes, diachronically displaced

ध/ḍha

insensible to

न/na

naevus n. a birthmark or a mole on the skin, especially a birthmark in the form of a raised red patch.

a tongue-like naevus, disinfected, surgically removed

प/pa

purge v. rid (someone) of an unwanted feeling, memory, or condition.

one purges herself of pollutants

फ/pha

fulcrum n. a thing that plays a central or essential role in an activity, event, or situation.

if speech is the fulcrum of being, what happens when you are at loss

ब/ba

burr n. a prickly seed case or flower head that clings to clothing and animal fur.

meaning sticks to you like burr

भ/bha

lost

म/ma

murrain n. redwater fever or a similar infectious disease affecting cattle or other animals.

the exorcism is interrupted by a murrain-like plague

य/ya

yours possessive pronoun. used to refer to a thing or things belonging to or associated with the person or people that the speaker is addressing.

but in time, everything that was once mine will be yours

र/ra

ruminant n. an even-toed ungulate mammal that chews the cud regurgitated from its rumen. The ruminants comprise the cattle, sheep, antelopes, deer, giraffes, and their relatives.

unlike a ruminant, I do not have the stomachs for…

ल/la

liminal a. relates to the point (or threshold) beyond which a sensation becomes too faint to be experienced’

liminal limitations

व/wa

woo v. seek the favour, support, or custom of.

I have wooed this mind into being singular

श/sa

shame n. a person, action, or situation that brings a loss of respect or honour.

shame has died and so have the potted plants

ष/sa

ending in or attended with defeat

स/sa

supplant v. supersede and replace.

the acquired has supplanted the innate

ह/ha

hull n. The outer covering of a fruit or seed, especially the pod of peas and beans, or the husk of grain.

the remnants have been discarded, like hull

क्ष/chhya

no longer able to understand

त्र/tra

bewildered, as to place

ज्ञ/gya

unable to find one’s way; not knowing one’s whereabouts

* * *

Itisha Giri is a poet of Nepali and Indian origin based in Madrid, whose work has appeared in literary journals such as La.Lit, Of Nepalese Clay, and in The House of Snow: An Anthology of the Greatest Writing About Nepal. Giri was invited as a guest poet to the Mediterranean Poetry Festival in Mallorca, and her poems have been translated into Catalan and Galician. She is the editor of poetry anthology These Fine Lines: Poems of Restraint and Abandon, published by SAFU, and she currently works as an assistant editor of poetry for La.Lit; an international literary magazine published in Kathmandu.

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