Names for the Drowned
by Shambhavi K, India. Second place in the Writory International Poetry Contest, May 2026, scored 95 out of 100.
Names for the Drowned The measure of a man, Flung to air тАФ and what can hold it? When all I have, amongst war and weep, An elegy of inconsequence, Foretold by the Lady of the Lake. Waves waned into stillness come starfall All that remains of your legacy: your permanence broken down to grains of time, a feast for the salted rocks say, the Lady speaks: would the birds mourn the sun had they known dusk was written first? would you say to her: yet still the hands built fire from winterwood, still the banners drank the weatherтАФ But you have no mouth. No, not anymore. Your answer, no one here would ever know.
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