"Skulls of Light" by Shome Dasgupta

Skulls Of Light

Behold — such sadness, this tilt of candle wick — should it be set to flame, oil and fire, melancholic wax drooped and hung beneath earth. A swayed pendulum, knocking stars upon stars — a musical clink it was, like marbles rattled in their palms. They listened to sorrow as heat won over — bent it became, a sad story of time and sconce and how the labra dipped its way into their skin, settled knop in dirt, it thrived to erode its bearing. A bronze of what once was splendor and bold, then only chipped and seared, as if given way to wraths of sky's breath. A meander of such, such that their placated minds irrigated, if not eroded, into combustion blue and so arrived flickers sounded in gentle furies — their heads turned this way and that to gather shelter in zones of muted memories — ashed vapors to make trails to where they once found meanings of mandibles. Now cracked — cracked smiles, a followed fault line up through braided flames, clavicles of rust and forlorn skulls, hollowed in by melted shapes of their recollections, reflections of amnesiacs — where stories were no longer relayed. Only anesthetic thoughts of fiery creations hovered around — bees of no guidance led them to strayed crackles and embers. There, they lit their own worlds on fire to find solace in their own burning heads.

shome dasgupta

Shome Dasgupta is the author of i am here And You Are Gone (Winner of the 2010 Outside Writers Press Contest), The Seagull And The Urn (HarperCollins India), Anklet And Other Stories (Golden Antelope Press), Pretend I Am Someone You Like (Livingston Press), Mute (Tolsun Books), Spectacles (Word West, forthcoming), and the poetry collection, Iron Oxide (Assure Press, forthcoming). His stories and poems have appeared in McSweeney's Internet Tendency, Puerto Del Sol, New Orleans Review, New Delta Review, Necessary Fiction, Atlas and Alice, Parentheses Journal, Magma Poetry, and elsewhere. He lives in Lafayette, LA, and can be found at www.shomedome.com and @laughingyeti.

Headshot: Shome Dasgupta

Photo Credit: Staff