A film forms over my tea-

cracks sprout at first, then tendrils

echoing the texture of a leaf membrane

in silent discrete segments.

Observe each further

and the pattern repeats, so now

you see dark clear water, flavoured

and frond-edged: the peace coast.

And a child playing by the beach

who will not come home.

This silence bleeds like a teabag.

Avik Chanda (England)  has had work appear in Adirondack Review, Black Bear Review, Rearview Quarterly, Slant, and elsewhere.