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Wayang Kulit
(Shadow Play)
Amanda
Yskamp
Originally
published in issue XXI of Vulgata,
May, 2009.
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That
singular night before,
I'd marveled at the lace of stars I'd
never seen
thrown over the inside dome
of the Southern
hemisphere,
its particular,
sidereal beauty marks
with their own
attendant legends --
and I tried to be silent
so the sky would enter me
and not leave me grounded
by human regard.
You see,
the Lo! extended finger
points back at the pointer:
points to the argument
and index of direction,
the acetylene torch welding
the seen to the scene.
That next morning, what was it?
Arching above the beach wall
of stacked stones,
a shrugged and bobbing reed,
animated somehow by whim
or wit. Where the wall gave
way to rubble, suddenly visible:
the smooth limbed girl
over whose shoulder the bamboo stalk
stretched, and down the beach into
view,
with one more opening of appearance,
at her ankles, the chortle and jostle
of the ducks she led.