1 In The Centaur Chronicles, Suhit Kelkar tells the life story of a centaur through descriptive titles and tight stanzas.
2
Make no assumptions, please,
that I am a horse trapped
in the body of a muscleman,
Backing out of him.
Nor am I a man emerging
from the forequarters
of a magnificent stallion.
3 It is at times light hearted and comedic, and also manages to wear its learning lightly.
5 Kelkar uses this mythical creature to delve into questions of identity and belonging:
I’ve worn the wounds of duels
In the forest of my youth
As if they were as light as rags;
As a captive, I never flinched
Under the princeling’s whip,
But slackened my pace to defy him;
What gets under a centaur’s
thick skin is not a wound,
But a word, or worse, a sneer.
6 You can buy it here and follow Mr. Kelkar here.
Photo by Brent Newhall (Flickr).