Apologies to Neruda

 'I want to do with you what spring does with cherry trees'.That is lovely, lush, ripe, continental 
---if you know what I mean. Can you imagine an English poet being so revealing? So now,
respond to that, Aditi! How would an Indian woman poet speak of her love today? Would there
be winds as well, monsoon winds, perhaps, and would she speak of secret meetings in the forest,
of her
sakhi, keeping watch during her trysts...? I don't think so, somehow. But the universe and
all its delights would be there, the lover's physical beauty and his dark eyes... 

Revathy
  
Her eyes aren't dark, Revathy.
a hazel-brown really
and when the light shines off them 
somewhere      between     grey        gold            brown.     
 
Our meetings are so secret 
even the monsoon winds keep away!
 
Revathy,
my beloved's 
conchshaped breasts                        
mould the palm of my hand
  
Pouring rain now,
the line of sweat  
between   her thighs 
  
I 
trace my path 
blindfolded

 
 
   

First published in Ghadar [http://ghadar.insaf.net]