CHANDRAMOHAN S
She presented herself
For me to write my poem.
Her twin crimson lips
Eluded translation into
One of my own couplets.
I offered her many synonyms
From which she could choose one-
She liked one of them-
She stepped out of her gown.
…
Portrait of the Poet
as a Young Woman
For Aruna Gogulamanda.
Her hair
Freshly harvested dreadlocks
Unedited gospel of love
Off limits to combs.
Tresses like streams
Of eternal fire
From the arsenal of her body.
Poems conceived in a celestial tongue
When stars align with cesarean precision.
It is our own language.
Her verses
Are neither left nor right aligned
Time zones hinge at every line break
Like sunflowers un-aligned to the scorching heat.
Every evening, on her terrace ,
she lets her hair down and flies kite,
Her verses tell vivid stories
Stitched together in myriad colors.
Her verses gurgle like a river let loose.
She never braids them
With her bare hands
Before a poetry reading.
When her poems are read
No boyfriend or pimp is allowed
Inside the reading hall.
Her kite, un-tethered to her surname,
Soars high, till it gets entangled with the stars.
Attempting to translate her poems
Is like making love to a capricious mistress.
Her curly, kinky stream of verses
Sway to the rhythm of her gait
Untamed by the clanging of her anklets.
Her book of poems-
a treatise on disheveled hair
and tresses on fire.
ON INTER-CASTE LOVE
Just like the saying goes-
Tongue has no bones
But can break many,
The submissive tuft of hair on the shaved
Heads of the twice born
Command an army of henchmen
Guarding the rust
Of medieval fences built
Along caste hymens.
KISS OF LOVE
« Correct our watches by the public clocks.
Then sit for half an hour and drink our bocks. »
T.S.Eliot Portrait of a Lady
Two pairs of lips
lock in a kiss
losing the sense of time.
Heads turn to
adjust wrist watches
from a public clock.
Locked lips
turn the wheel of time
like prophets.
Chandramohan S is an Indian English Dalit poet based in Trivandrum, Kerala. His poems
were shortlisted for Srinivas Rayaprol Poetry Prize 2016. His second collection of poems titled “Letters to Namdeo Dhasal” was a runner up at M.HARISH GOVIND memorial prize instituted by POETRY CHAIN. He was instrumental in organizing literary meets of English poets of Kerala for the Ayyappa Panicker Foundation in addition to being a fellow at the International Writing Program (IWP) at the University of Iowa.