Light Against Bone
By Jimmy Sharma
I didn’t notice at first:
the small brightness rising
behind the sternum,
like a match struck
in a room I thought empty.
Outside, the world kept offering
its mirrors, its sophisticated noise,
promising a clearer face
If only I leaned closer.
Each reflection blurred.
Still, that inner spark persisted,
soft as moth’s wing
against bone.
It learned my breathing,
waited for the moment
the noise thinned enough
to slip through.
One morning, the corridor
of my thinking opened.
Dust lifted.
Old illusions folded,
without ceremony.
No revelation thundered,
only a steady light
moving through the body,
quietly softening the dark.
Jimmy Sharma teaches English Literature at Kurukshetra University, Haryana, India. She did her PhD on the fiction of Amitav Ghosh from Panjab University, Chandigarh. She's the author of five books: Communicative English, Communicative English-I, Nayantara Sahgal: A Critical Study, Echoes Within: Poems, and Advanced Communicative English. Her poems have appeared in Muse India, Mad Swirl, Pangolin Review, Literary Yard, PPP Ezine, RIC Journal and elsewhere. Besides teaching, she tweets @intuitivepoetry and blogs on nature, language learning, human relationships, and psychology