by Lina Krishnan

Skin

Her gnarled branches

A tapestry 

Layers of living

At every pore

Somewhere

A woodcutter has struck

Broken, bruised 

Feeble now

Hesitant, trust gone

Yet life flows

Her young limbs

Glow in the recent rain

Green veins in white bark

Arc de triomphe

Over the trunk

Holding up, still

Like a tired Atlas 

Stumbling to the finish line

Lina Krishnan’s abstract art, poetry and photography emerge from a reflective engagement with the questions that surround her universe. Small Places, Open Spaces, her chapbook of nature verse, co-written with Valli Poole, was published in 2018.