abhaya mudra

Zoey Greenwald

 

what is to be done in ballet class
when you find your hand extended in abhaya mudra
and French fails to describe
your body now

you learned abhaya mudra from your mother
but your mother has no tongue you learned
abhaya mudra from a plaque tacked to a
white wall

you learned white walls from your mother
you learned white walls turn you tongueless
and Vishnu
stands before you
sees with eyes garnet
what he fails to preserve

stone, are we
together tongueless—speak!

that I were to embrace you
garnet granite grandfather

alarms
in prayer I am
escorted out of the Met.

 


Zoey Greenwald is a poet currently living in Brooklyn, NY. She’s a student at Eugene Lang College for Liberal Arts, interested in multi-genre/hybrid work, autoficiton, queer artists, riot grrrl music, and cyborgs. Her twitter is @zoey_greenwald.

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