Some countless summers ago…
I was your blushing bride
you were my verdant flame
Our laughter would echo the walls
melting like
hot molten paraffin
drip by drip every
noon night and day

One evening…
after a sudden cloud burst
just like our impromptu love making
I delightedly
followed a trail of ants
on the floor.


There along the window frame
I saw a long tail
(probably a resident of neighboring monkeyhood)

Only on coming closer
Did I see
It was not our friendly neighbor
But a king Cobra
suspended upside- down


I shrieked and shrieked
Till you pulled me back
Into your embrace once again


Yes it was the summer
When I was unfamiliar
With death’s strange dialect

Somehow I don’t fear snakes anymore…
But I still carry the smell of you everywhere

…citrus mingling with wet earth…