watermark faces

         staring from sky tipsy—

                  every person sees eyes, a nose

in the blue clairvoyance above only interrupted

         by a trespassing cloud and so every person

                  a poet in riveting gaze    loves a cold spine

buffed warm with tears or brandy,

         a hot shower’s purgatory — not

                  on my face sure but my back—     yes please

like a pimple pinched in the privates, in the mind’s

         ridiculous eye gloom turns ecstatic

                  without stimulus:     unspeakable, untenable

yet you must trace—     yes, please

         my mother’s difficult voice    the gist

                  of which coos like the watchman’s shrill

whistle at midnight:     you should know

         before I die, I want to see

                  my grandchildren     her pitch hoisting

me to the top of a toy truck ramp

         I slide down     gentle inclination

                  towards noir restoration     I look forward

to checking into a heritage hotel on the weekend

         in the outer city where the gross particulars

                  of my bank balance can bare the cleverness

of digits     one numeral colluding with another

         to make a value so empirical it could

                  twist a vine of fate    I have no clue of why

when I feel filthy    impossible to pray after liturgies

         of sudden lust     where to go from yourself

                  but around     hovering like a boorish fly feeding

on garish crumbs you wish the lips of unknown

         rubbers to suckle     it’s a blessing in disguise

                  to miss lovers     you shall never have  

how lovely then     the assembling of storied splinters

         chipped from a jigsaw prism

                  you can pass through as a number of beams

…

Satya Dash’s poems appear in Waxwing, Wildness, Redivider, Passages North, The Boiler, The Florida Review, Hobart, The Cortland Review and Poetry@Sangam among others. Apart from having a degree in electronics from BITS Pilani-Goa, he has been a cricket commentator too. He is a two-time Orison Anthology, Best New Poets and Best of the Net nominee. He spent his early years in Odisha and now lives in Bangalore, India. He tweets at: @satya043