The Dog Knows Shade
The temple dog sleeps
where the stone is coolest.
Bells rise and fall.
People carry flowers, fear, quiet gratitude.
She lifts one ear
for the woman with biscuits,
then lowers it again.
No bargain. No miracle.
No love lost.
Only this weathered body
trusting a patch of shade
to hold for one more hour.
I sit beside her
and learn that peace
also has a temperature.
Sushanth Shyamsundar is an Indian writer and poet based in Chennai. He performs spoken word as Rakshasan and writes across poetry, fiction, horror, comedy, queerness, family, memory, and the strange machinery of everyday life. His work often explores tenderness, absurdity, survival, and the ways ordinary things become strange. Instagram: @rak.sha.san Website: rakshasanmedia.com