10 - The Universe in You

9 - Invite, Again

1.The Invite

It is a short distance

To my heart

I am saying yes

And feel raw

Will you come

And fill me deep

And strong

So I may remember

My fullness, too?

2. Again

I took it all

And see you fully

Meek and mine

Heard your sounds

tasted everything

Know what you can and can't

It will be our secret

But only for now

Since I will have you, again.

8 - Buoyancy

7 - Origins

You dared to confess
Of all times now
How thrilling!
I now understand
Why (I) like you
I am weak for
Men with a penchant for
Poetry and humor

We are after all the original sinners
You and I
Frolicking in the gardens of our secretions
I, an exhibitionist
You in discrete elegance
Up 'til now

Your reserve all gone
Even your vanity disappearing
Do you now appreciate my bulk?
This fatty can lift you, turn you over
Even wash that luscious site of my origin
What my Papa still adores
You blurted it out yourself
You knew
That I liked to do it

Now I am the one
insisting on some lipstick, at least
that yellow shirt will bring out your glow
how about a clip for your hair?
people are visiting
old friends
my aging uncles and aunties
who have loved you all along

But I fell in love with you
That summer, once again
After all these years
Our hearts are dancing with secrets
and not so original sins

6 - Both Beautiful

You regarded me seriously
As I did you
And you said it first about me
What I had in my mind
About you
That we were both
Beautiful

I assured you that I would come again at Christmas
Could you wait for me
Knowing that you already knew
What we could not bring our tongues to say
You chided me not to cry
As you turned away

I asked them all, too
In their varied blazes of glory
And anthropomorphic divinity
They grew dim, though
They may not be able to

So I revised, and asked
That it not hurt so much
For you of course,
but more so for me

And left you knowing
What I already knew
What I could not bring myself to say
That the return would be grim.

copyright 2008 Sunita S. Mukhi

5 - Dusk

4 - The Nights Are Most Difficult Of All

The nights are most difficult of all
Because fatigue blinds us
And the quiet deafens us

But on rare occasions
When we are distracted
From our own tragic loss

When we have managed a laugh or two
Or paid attention to another’s grief
Cooked a meal, visited

Then you sneak up on us
So we can float on a cloud of dreams
With you in it.

You coyly take a peek
And swaddle us

In the glow of your largesse

copyright 2008 Sunita S. Mukhi

3 - Here and Departed

2 - Released

Released
You left,
broken bloody
Gasping

You had been leaving for some time
Intermittently present
To give us some small bright hope
You were merely doing us a favor

But you had to,
so you went

And we wept
And gathered around you
And sang odd songs between sobs
With our meagre voices

Even now
You are a beauty
Draped in pink silk
While we in sad rags
Pine for your moon

copyright 2008 Sunita S. Mukhi

1 - Departed Remembered