WISP OF MEMORY

I stopped having dreams
she doesn't visit me in my sleep

there's no love making
nor the night of her first meeting

time seems to collapse
I can't breathe for two any more

with forced libido
I can't sense beyond the body

the rain on the jetty
resounds a wisp of memory


--R.K.SINGH

DON'T CONDEMN ME

DON’T CONDEMN ME

It’s still linked but I don’t understand

or don’t want to understand because

I am too much with me and worry

about her dying libido and my

own shrinking sex amidst salsa chill

Bihu fever, Vishu rituals

ringing emptiness day and night shake

the age-wrapped youth for single-edge play

in forked flame carve image of heaven

to challenge the jealous God undo

sins of races flowing in my blood:

I love Him through the bodies He made

but they don’t understand redemption

in churning and parting of the sea

they don’t rejoice the flames of henna

on her palms nor let the lily bloom

in the valleys use the clefts and cliffs

to deface beauty and spike voices

don’t condemn me if I am not white

the water still flows in my river

--R.K.SINGH