Wind in the Palm Trees | Reena Prasad

The man lay on damp grass-
a stench of recycled water in
his thoughts

His window is open
A boy runs along the dirt track
between the lightning-hit palm stump and the shacks
his little feet lingering
near a rope cot
where an old man though long gone
still breathes
Wheezy leaves whisper all around
the boy turns and runs across the sea

The woman is bent over a reluctant fire
sending its sparks across several seas
Once upon a monsoon
her sari had red blossoms
all over a strange tree

Looking into a piece of broken glass
she stretches the tired boats
under her eyes
moistens her lips with her tongue
and wipes off the betel blood
kissing their edges
Desire never seeks her out
before sundown

The temple bells ring out one last time
and the stone deity watches the doors
close in on her

The dog ignores her and gnaws
at a moldy piece of roti
Through the back door, the woman vanishes
her eyes sunken in the drought
that has crept into the land
The deity of the night has awoken

She reappears in another land
in the man’s dream
dressed in red, her hands tender
but followed by accusing voices
and village hordes
raining invectives

He retreats into a bottle
trying to get wet
but the cool rain never touches him

The impartial goddess sleeps
wherever a meal is promised

The dust in them
has ploughed an impenetrable desert
into their skins

If she would grant one wish,
he would die and never return
to the land that sent him away
but the locked-up idol has ears of stone

So he dreams
of flying home
of paying off the loan sharks
of not repairing the broken roof
and lying in a grave
dug in the mud of his hut
The monsoon pouring on his skin
soaking his calluses

There is a murmur in the palm trees
a dry sheaf has fallen over the broken roof
The woman removes strange arms
wrapped around her breasts
The dog is silent
A man howls into the night gale.

Reena Prasad is a poet/writer from India, currently living in Sharjah (United Arab Emirates). Her poems have been published in several anthologies and journals. She is also the Destiny Poets UK’s, Poet of the year for 2014 and one of the editors of The Significant Anthology released in July 2015. More recently, she was adjudged second in the World Union Of Poet’s poetry competition, 2016.