Crossing the Kausiki
What day? I was born
when the river was yellow
every morning
a sickle moon falls
from your cheek
with fever
I can never touch your hand
twice
everywhere bodies fell
like a hacked rhododendron
I fell in love
while crossing the Kausiki
this is how my story
begins
wild wild horse
legs kicking rabid
rapid mane I held
I was river river
blue with secrets
and no salt
I stayed in the water
until my only lungi dried
on a rock on the shore
you melted
three winters
in its unspooling
a man passing through
the suspension bridge saw me
when I returned
the village was a hive
she turned the river
into milk
how do you see river
in river
boy my skin was that fair
what punishment for Actaeon
they bombed the river
pink with stunned bellies
when a net of boys waiting
in the shoal reached
for the fish the fish
shredded the river milky
was Apa one of them
men is no river
my palimpsest blood
the river births
the river
an ocean away
when my tongue craves sugar
I make kheer
who knows what day
I was born
two butter lamps
the distance between the shore and the shore
one for you
one for the Kausiki
my memory the yellowed
water in between breaking
the branches of the moon
a bowl of rice milk cardamoms
all I remember is
you open your mouth
you are no more
I lived
the lamps
I leave burning
about the author
