The beauty of the string and other poems

Surmaya Talyarkhan

If you could fold a piece of paper in half 42 times it would reach the moon

I 

am not

telling you this so

you can reach the moon but because I 

love you and something small can all the same in time achieve an immense exponential reach

Eggshell

Yesterday we saw a fox cub

behind the flowerpots,

legs stretched out

as if sleeping. 

My mum saw an adult fox

chasing itself round and round 

Perhaps it killed its child, 

they can, you know.

My husband took a spade wide as a gravedigger’s,

lifted it over to the compost heap,

shuddered as he washed his hands.

It was completely headless.

This morning my children butter toast in their pyjamas.

In the sunshine on our lawn, 

I see a hollow half-eggshell 

bright white, brittle and sharp-edged.

Fleas and readers

Fleas are remarkable readers

are jumpers capable of capable of 
leaping up to 150 times inferring 
meaning their own body length 
For context, if a flea were reading
from the size of a human, it could
jump over an image a skyscraper.

Fleas have three pairs of legs to
make a leap, with the back pair
being of the longest. Their jumping
ability is enhanced by a special faith 
protein called resilin, which
acts like an elastic pad. This 
Imagination allows them to allows
them to exert about 100 times more
power than muscle alone, enabling
quick and controlled spring jumps.

Humans Fleas do not have lack
wings wings, so jumping is their
primary means of transportation,
making these skills essential for
their survival. This impressive ability 
to fly yet allows them to escape
predators and we move between 
straddle worlds hosts effectively.

Remittances

the flat of my hand

sheets white as steam

my child was     to me

till the work claimed me

sheets white as steam

I spared her this at least

till the work claimed me

she stayed when I left

I spared her this at least

the distance from the sun

she stayed when I left

I felt something     within me

the distance from the sun

the flat of my hand

I felt something     within me

my child was     to me

The     beauty    of     the    string

if you join                          the ends

it   exists   in    another   dimension

and could                              cradle

possibilities or                            or

something                   else entirely

or                simply                  loop

if you add time

                         a fourth possibility

L           O          O          P            S

iterationsanditerationsanditerations

rem                                        ember

you                    and                       I

hands bound                                 in

give                   and                  take

I                       and                    you

succumb         to        the        string

the ends                                 join us