My beloved April moon,
when the poets write ghazal
they are writing about you

The goddess of love,
Aphrodite,
cried when I told her
that you may leave

Her tears shedding
for you to stay,
like drops of Venus

Come back
For the goddess
of love’s sake,
come back

On high and in whole looms a glimmering globe
On a mountain of cloud, on her wintery throne
Diana every man has known

From there she casts her ashen glory
Upon my buildings highest storey
From there and paired with stars in tow
She maps the routes and lights the roads

Beyond black trees all sharp and blown
Through feral fields for miles untold
How she bridges their breadth without effort or labor
How I envy pallid plains set all alight beneath her favor

And the stars started to giggle
as I told them more
about you.
They seemed happy to hear
how happy you make me.
While the moon listened
as I smiled thinking of you.

I sit alone in cold wind breeze
At night some time out night air,
And cold wind finds my face homely
And light-***** shine their brightest blare

I'll see some hands that tread alone
All through night they sit alone
Somewhere the sun creeps up on me
But then the moon reminds my soul:

I walk alone along the sky
Sometimes I float and touch too high,
And then I float back down my keep
And felt as once I'd never been.

really hot days
remind me of my home

the one across the sea
with mangos ripe on the vine
and yellowed grass

if I close my eyes,
i can almost taste the dust in the air
feel the warm embrace of my family members
that i miss so dearly
smell the petrichor off the hot cement floor after a fresh monsoon rain

time zones apart feel like worlds apart
and they are
when your family is dying
and there is no way to comfort your aunt
because her husband is taking his last breaths

there was no chance for her to say goodbye
to her father, to her husband,
both lay in hospitals
continents apart
isolated, but not unloved
both gone, not even a month apart

the borders have been closed for i don’t even know how long
there is no physical way for us, let alone her own children, to be present
all we do is wait

most of my memories are spent on
drinking chai on the veranda
or dancing in the rain with Papa
playing holi with pails of water mixed with “gulal” and water pistols.
seeing the smiles of all my family members,
together once again.

really hot days
remind me of my home
smoke from the wildfires mimics the smog in the air
the sun - a red ball in the grey sky
if i shut my eyes real tight
i can still get a glimpse of us on the rooftop, celebrating life.

First star channels
     a hymn from a hammock

Leave a trail for me
     in the new grass
     I will weave back around it
as I trace the code of our pasts

I will glide back through
Like two snakes

Each print of my feet
     a press on fresh cells
Merges me with you back
          seeping to the soils

Keep speaking to me through the fire through the clouds
through the first body of light in a quickly darkening sky

In that space, we deny
all that is fear from dying

From here, there’s only “feel”
And from everywhere,  is “Love”

More.

hers were eyes
that teased the sun
from its slumber,
that made a mockery
of half-moon