Sea Afternoons

The shadow
of the mango tree
has lengthened like a beak, like a rent
in the earth, a chasm.
It has spread. It has come
into our home,
into the little room
of endless talk and silences.
It has brought its thin, black
mid-afternoon gloom
and the cold.
I am drowning, I say to you.
I am drowning.
It is a plea.
It is bloody bone,
the rasp of sea [...]

To A. (villanelle)

We talked all night; there was so much to say
A catalogue of years, hours and sighs.
We talked until the break of day
We lived ten years in two; eternity in a day.
Through sun-drenched smiles, forest fire-cries,
We talked all night; there was so much to say
We steered off some mountain road to play
At the edge of the [...]

Moonsong

My love
shames rivals into oblivion,
blackens them
until all that remains is my orb,
the sky’s gleaming eyeball,
white as sand
on alien beaches,
hollow as dust.
You slid in
to find mountains, craters.
and lava spew.
Now you are afraid
of my solitary anger,
the coiled serpent
at the base of my spine.
You are afraid
of its nameless hungers,
its slow uncurling down the length
of your body.
You are afraid
it [...]

Submerge (villanelle)

You could have unfurled in my depths, if you tried
But your gods and demons stopped the leap;
Love diminishes when it has something to hide.
At least Icarus knew the sun’s heart when he died,
His father — left behind — could only long and weep
You could have unfurled in my depths, if you tried
Between dreams and waking, [...]

She Said

What is it that scares you?
You with your gigantic bindi,
like a dull sun on your forehead,
your house full of Chinese vases,
wine glasses and photo frames.
Does my otherness terrify?
Or is there a part of you that wonders,
at night, in the quiet,
when the rumbles of his body have ceased
what it would feel like, what it would be [...]

Parvati

When the wind comes down from the hills
and palm trees fling their leaves about
like Sufi saints stepped off the edge,
she lies on a mat on the floor,
arms out,
and listens to coconuts falling on the roof
like tough-shelled meteors.
In her, quiet,
is the cry of marauding elephants
Grey. Heavy. It flattens her.
Parvati, woman of the foothills,
woman of hard hands [...]

Desire.15.

Intensity had its failings that summer.
Feverishly clambering over the old cartons
in the store room, fumbling in semi-light,
your fingers played at ineptitude.
I act like I know the impatience of hands.
I wonder if any of my friends have done this.
they attended special classes for French
and bent their heads low over Le Soleil, repeating verbs.
Naitre. Revoir. Mourir. Maundered [...]