by Satya Dash
quantum of pepper in a Bloody Mary so perfect
equates tipsy to happy rolling down my throat
in jeeps of pinwheel candy seducing stomach
you Sir be a fine mess belly blushing a baby’s pink
my frame a door to seaweed pleasure to impermanence
land of bones heaped on sour cream a cathedral’s holy
harmony of slow guzzling throat raised prostrate
at gravity’s feet brims of want a bloom in throes
galloping to saturation night in the esophagus lying
flat I want to go down like moon on a field of grassed
stars my mother says guard the full moon it brings
great luck the last full moon party I attended coincided
with the country’s demonetization scheme I blew cash
like an ATM machine on overdrive the death of limits
make my hands lonely from the space between fingers
resembling pale french fries in the bar’s penumbra
when lightness imbues like a visa approval sharp
so jubilant I start to laugh from the senseless tickle
of uninvited memory so hard my eyes wrung
to a pour of waterfall milk in a warm bath I seek
course correction I love mirrors the song of eyes
the spread of anxious touch do you also plan for life
while slivering bare into thin dark elegies like this
Satya Dash’s poems have been published or are forthcoming in Passages North, Cosmonauts Avenue, The Florida Review, Pidgeonholes, Glass Poetry, Prelude amongst others. Apart from having a degree in electronics from BITS Pilani-Goa, he has been a cricket commentator too. His work has been twice nominated for the Orison Anthology. He spent his early years in Odisha, India and now lives in Bangalore. He tweets at: @satya043.