IN LOVE BY KAMALA DAS

Of what does the burning mouth

Of sun, burning in today's

Sky remind me... oh, yes, his

Mouth, and... his limbs like pale and

Carnivorous plants reaching

Out for me, and the sad lie

Of my unending lust.  Where

Is room, excuse or even

Need for love, for, isn't each

Embrace a complete thing, a

Finished jigsaw, when mouth on

Mouth, I lie, ignoring my poor

Moody mind, while pleasure

With deliberate gaiety

Trumpets harshly into the

Silence of the room... At noon

I watch the sleek crows flying

Like poison on wings -- and at

Night, from behind the Burdwan

Road, the corpse-bearer's cry '_Bol

Hari Bol_', a strange lacing

For moonless nights, while I walk

The verandah sleepless, a

Million questions awake in

Me, and all about him, and

This skin-communicated

Thing that I dare not yet in

His presence call our love.

Note: From The Golden Treasury of Indo-Anglian Poetry by V.K.Gokak (Editor)