BODY: A TANKA SEQUENCE

To avoid nagging
he gulps down pegs and pretends
every thing's normal:
keeping the mouth shut, hiding
whiskeyed breath  and meditating


Trying all sides
and every position
to sleep a few hours
but pain in the neck conspires
with long winter nights


The lips in her eyes
and long hours in the mouth
no moist secret
between us to reveal:
now our backs to each other


She says she is
a pure vegetarian
and hates to take
even an egg 'coz it comes
from the chicken's vagina


Fondling her breasts
I incite a poem
on her body
eraze my self
stroking pubic darkness


Hearing him talk dung
she doubts his integrity
and curses him for
emitting lava from mouth:
I regret stomach upset


A tress of hair
she drops over the mole
on her forehead
thinking it's ugly and
hides her own gazelle eyes


The beads of sweat
on her breasts do not touch
her years or face
in candle light her shadow
is more restrained than my thought


Making love
she tastes the salt
on his shoulder
in the afternoon he pounds
like the surf into her flesh


The power goes off
suddenly summer heat chokes
in bed sleepless she turns
undoing a hook or two
of her tight blouse


--Ram Krishna Singh