there is no place for tigers
we sprang from the Western Ghats : grasping for air
__tuberlike and trembling : we unfurled : flame
____gloriosa in the rainy season : we climbed up
_____from soil : clusterpearls of black pepper
____vines descending : into eastbound foothills
___we uttered blessings for abundance : we knew
mother ghosts : fanged and manylimbed.
__Meghamalai remembers : who split and sold
_____the shola : who broke the rivers and scattered
______our bloodprick reflections : bonding us
______in landless servitude : who disappeared
_talkingtrees for exports.
___under idle wind turbines : comrades proclaim
_verities in the hills dialect : a watchful pearl sickle rises
in the dark : harvesting clouds and growing full : like a stillborn
__we trust in what remains : something buried
____like cassava or desire.
how many fractures until the transaction
__is complete : how many ablutions until dissolution
____in the end : the body recedes into veils of budded
__jasmine : cottoncloth in the underground country
_do you understand?
take me to the dargah : pronounce me
__alive : my hips will sweep to a hillside percussion
____and from my fingertips will erupt : endless
_____tea : cardamom : coffee : cinnamon : and
______they will sell what remains.