river returns

The River Returns
A Collection of Tanka Poems

by Ram Krishna Singh

She hears the voice
of unrealized bliss in
the coos of koel
at the window sill this evening
rains love and delight

2

His message to meet
at moon rise among the flowers
sparkles a secret
on her smiling face passion
glows with charming fervor

3

She is no moon yet
she drifts like the moon, takes care
of him from the sky—
meets him for short, waxing
leaves him for a long, waning

4

Before going to bed
she looks too sad to have
any sweet dream:
the lonely lamp glints no love
and no star peeks through the curtains

5

Yearning to meet him
she turns a silk-worm spinning
love-silk in cold night—
stands in a shade melting tears
like a candle, drop by drop

6

Stains of dried dewy
tears on the eyelids tell of
the load on her mind:
clothed in spring the willow twigs
reveal the changed relation

7

Locked in the shadows
of unrolled curtains her love
in the lone boudoir:
she plays tunes on the guitar
flowers fade at the windows

8

She senses all things
changing as she passes through
the city again:
should I leave the old house or
lie in the grave before death

9

Twisting tassels
round her finger fears coming
of night in bed:
octopus grips the body
and buckles into disgrace

10

At the river
she folds her arms and legs
resting her head
upon the knees and sits
as an island

11

Is it her quietus
that she roars in herself
like a sea
waves upon waves
leaps upon herself?

12

Gods couldn’t change the rhythm
of the body and its needs:
erotic scars stick—
after three decades love waves
tense the flesh and rock the night

13

When the sun is erotic
and the moon lyric
the winds turn tempestuous
in the orbit of love
legs slide by calls of nature