Crowning

by Geetha Ravindran

Grief as
              the in-grief's head, crowning, half-domed. The ting—
spoonmade Vedic commas. Growing. Sharpened successively

into framed metals. The gloaming twirled into the cloud trail
with headfirst momentum.


In here, musk. Inessence.
An uncombed part and a couple of moles.


                    Thoughts word in flotilla procession.


Moon.           Fossa
impacted in a field of palliative
care.


Spigot-eyes cork the floor.


Then the bed's tense sheets: camber-raised canals
ending in salt flats.


Sighs shift warden shadows. Sighing
rise and suffocate.
                                  Vein on eyelid links in thirst
with vein on undertongue.


                            Lull-desperate, lone body.


Stodge routes off bone,
in mounds,        like a warm litter.           Hands twitch


beneath with a wish.beneath with a wish.