The Names

Poet. Believer. Infidel.
Lover. Atheist. Bitch
These are mine.
Memorise them. Slake tongue
with them. Feed your thirst.
Open them to pure midnight
and turn them to gold.
Stripped of them,
I am unsyncopated,
flat as slate, diminished
by your thick face in dreams.
It is not enough to know the names.
You must speak them loudly
in rooms, pile them into cars
on smoggy evenings and drive
them [...]

The Nizam’s Wives

Four girls in brocade,
tussar and stiff smiles, the
slow stranglehold of gold
on their hands, necks, faces.
They were the children who aged early.
Were they friends? Did they
share their fractured power
while swapping dolls, diamonds
and nights? Or were their eyes
darting and vicious over the pudding?
Did they avoid the bath at certain times?
Perhaps, three of them colluded
against the fourth, leaving
frogs [...]

Renunciation

I have waited for you
like the tree waits for rain
mute with unsung desires
and abashed, its leaves
clinging to the brown stem
with dry hands and dry lips.
Like the orange flower
of the pomegranate,
I have sprouted my question
from the topmost branch.
I have said your name
to the sun that beats
fiercely on this valley
making its lakes gleam
and the fish spool deeper.
I [...]

Benediction

In your every rejection,
a poem waits.
It lingers there, quivering
like closed eyelids in half-sleep,
moth’s wings, tears.
I hunt it with eagle stealth
with aspen grace, with lightening
edge, and a lover’s embrace.
I am the swift tongue
of the mantis, its clairvoyant
eye glittering in the green
blade of grass
I am the volatile arc
of the comet, its loose,
hair streaming through the [...]