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M.T. Karthik

~ midcareer archive, 1977 – 2017 plus 2022

M.T. Karthik

Monthly Archives: January 1998

snow my first night in Brooklyn, 1998

21 Wednesday Jan 1998

Posted by mtk in NYC, poetry

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

1998, brooklyn, Karthik, m.t., mtk, ny, poem, snow

I’m shivering –
can’t hold myself tightly enough and there’s no one else to hold me.
It’s cold.
It snowed last night on the spring equinox.
It only snowed once in New York this past winter –

that day, three full moons back, when I returned from Boston
to spend my first night in Brooklyn.

It fell in drifting, tiny, crisp, wispy flakes
that melted when they struck the concrete
and the earth of the city
mean

while it was snowing
in drifts up and down the east coast
shutting down whole swaths of automated New England
killing electricity for thousands
killing several who were inadequately housed.

My first night in Brooklyn was cold.
I fashioned a bed from a piece of sheetrock laid across cement cinderblocks,
and covered it in some of my warmest clothes.
My overcoat was a blanket.

I lit some candles.

there was no heat, no bath, and no electricity.
there was a toilet and a sink that gave no warm water
and I watched it snow and considered the english language

There is no snow where I am from.

Never.

There, it is either wet or dry and usually it is too hot to be outside for long.

Now, I have traveled far from where I am from
and have seen many things and kinds of things.
I have, along the way, learned new words.

I have heard english-speaking people say, in amazement:
“the Inuit have more than 30 words for snow.”

and that day in Brooklyn I wondered how
english could have snow for millennia
and yet have only one word
for the many different kinds of falling white
I’ve seen –

the cold, browzy, white haze at great heights
the soft, gentle quiet of an empty field
tiny flakes and slippery ice
hard rains of sleeting shards.

english has been arrogant.

It just feathered that day.

It was just a little feathering down.

a feathering of

Baubles V, 1998

13 Tuesday Jan 1998

Posted by mtk in poetry

≈ Leave a comment

Yo baubles here’s one from the top of the telephone
Talking coast to coast – me at work in Manhattan
you in Berzerkely at yo mama’s home

You said:

“She’s a creative director … (so she says).
so I’m supposed to understand
she’s a fashion director for a magazine

“I say two words-and she says ‘SF Moda?’
And I start to say, “No, I didn’t say –”
(that’s not what I said)

“And she says, “Why yes, I do work for SF Moda … You’re a DJ? I know you from somewhere …”

“Turns out she was “winnie d’s roommate”

“but I never been to winnie’s house … dummy-”

Then baubles, you told me ‘bout how she was

And said she was and how she wasn’t and said she was and how she said and said and said

But then you set it straight with that big brown shuffle of yours.

‘cause from the tail end of that call I can still hear you sayin’:

“baby, we don’t need to talk … in fact, it’s best that you don’t –
I can give you a lyric sheet and we can make some beautiful music together.”

(phone convo with DJ Consuelo), mtk, nyc, 1998

M.T. Karthik

This blog archives early work of M.T. Karthik, who took every photograph and shot all the video here unless otherwise credited.

Performances and installations are posted by date of execution.

Writing appears in whatever form it was originally or, as in the case of poems or journal entries, retyped faithfully from print.

all of it is © M.T. Karthik

a minute of rain

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYLHNRS8ik4

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