And sound of wood cracked--split and splintered,
a hush and roar: how's that, they say.

And how this cricketer gone mad, shoved
his helmet and stripped bare--bat thrown six feet--
and when a blackbird flew over, as if to observe a spectacle
--how this crazed batter shouted one word
in echo and echo until reddened eyes gave way to lost tears.

As if there was no record he held
--as if he was no one to be known.

And in that one word, an existence
--her name her name her name.

A crowd and crowd, he knelt--put lips to pitch, naked
and dizzied and whispered her name one last time before tea
--one last time before it was all done, over and over.

# # #

Shome Dasgupta is the author of i am here And You Are Gone (Winner Of The 2010 OW Press Fiction Chapbook Contest), The Seagull And The Urn (HarperCollins India), Anklet And Other Stories (Golden Antelope Press), Pretend I Am Someone You Like (Livingston Press), and Mute (Tolsun Books). He lives in Lafayette, LA and can be found at www.shomedome.com and @laughingyeti.