Lava Spasm

Lava Spasm by Gitan Djeli

can you hear

the birth of an archipelago

in labour - deep breath slow push

a quiet noise - tearing

the pulse of tissue

the shred of crystals

a quake stifled from the core

a crack of tectonic plates

announcing the wake of kumarikkantam

rubbing - the wall of the womb

contractions - blood lava spasms

from the cosmic lining of an orb

a tremor

the first gasp of oxygen

in the release

of a promise

as decibels mount - the cacophony

of a pull of earthing

from the screams below

and then

the silence

of liquid solidifying

into igneous rocks

Gitan Djeli is a London-based Mauritian writer and researcher in cultural studies. Her poems appear in the July/August issue of Poetry (2019) and in the anthology We Mark Your Memory by Commonwealth Writers (2018). Poem published on amberflora magazine online on 15/09/2019.