Calligraphy Poem by AISWARYA THARA BHAI ANISH

Calligraphy

His a's looked like kidney beans
From a new tin can.

His r's like tree branches,
Or flying away kites on a wet beach sunset.

His g's like a humming bird
Curled in a green vine with a tulip tube.

His u's like a wrought copper tumbler
Rounded edges, water fresh.

His m's like Grecian pillars
Arched and sculpted to perfection.

His e's like caramelized shrimps
Browning in the pan, tail tucked.

His n's like paper clips, bright and neat
Tacked to a corner, correct and collecting

His t's like transformers erected
At street corners with a tendency to slope.

But his words like a weak paper bird
A frigid origami that floats in the air.

Calligraphy
POET'S NOTES ABOUT THE POEM
This poem grew out of an obsession with handwriting as personality—the way letters can look alive, confident, even sculpted, before they ever form meaning. Each letter is treated as an object, a small still life, borrowing textures from food, architecture, birds, metal, and infrastructure. The intention was to slow the reader down, to make them see language before they read it. The sequence deliberately spells "argument." The letters are rich, tactile, and carefully formed—suggesting intelligence, training, and aesthetic control. But the final image turns away from craft toward consequence. Despite the beauty of form, the words themselves are fragile: a paper bird that floats but cannot endure. This contrast reflects a familiar human tension—when eloquence, structure, or performance outpaces emotional weight or truth. Ultimately, the poem asks whether precision in language guarantees strength in meaning, or whether sometimes the most carefully shaped arguments still fail to land, dissolving quietly in the air.
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