divya m. persaud

d i v y a m . p e r s a u d

do you want me to stay or leave?

a bit of poetry

THE BIRDS OF MOHAVE

I want to see the birds of Mohave butdo they want to see me? a desert isnot for a girl to search for birds andthe thunderstorms are pressing throughthe mountains now.

I want to fly with the birds of Mohavebut I am frightened of giants watchingus, for flight in empty places is a stolenthing; it is, in fact,a lie.

I want to become a bird in Mohavewhen the sun hits the stones;when virga clouds become promiseskept; when the brushes turn to thrushes

and vulture feed into macaws andwhen the trailing dusts behind planesare reborn into endless murdersand when the haze cities give birthto me, to me,

I want to see the birds of Mohave to seeme

FLOWERS

I dress you in sunsetsbecause I have burns onmy eyes and the nightfrightens me and the residual warmth ofdaytime on your facemakes me want toforget the days myflowers have lived

MASS / RELEVANCE (1)

autumns in parallel / symptoms in threebewitch you, I / beseech me, you; wethrice evasion seek / twice persuasion leech

the orange intangible / cold nestling earsbristling, storm towers / flowers on the beachi, ours, yours, mine / cataclysm, each

and I am left to breach / quiet synchronyleafed infamy, fall / into mesee / this three-word liturgy

autumns in parallel / symptoms in threebewitch you, I / bewitch, you, me

STAR ANISE

clove vapor:vesper, numbing,

reach insideand plant thisred forest ofkelp gone dry;

tulsi stainsmy palms,

so rest yoursin them andextricatethis quietude

from my bones,soaked fruit;

I am become [anise blossoms]we are become

DO NOT FLINCH

unveil my teeth about yourneck: youthful bird, thesefeathers are mine, do not flinch:

I am the moon tonight and youdo not know whence my lightpeels away your reddened

eyes, this light fading; I amthe belt of Orion, struckgold in these Eastern lanterns

lit by Venus in the dregsof September, you, octobrisumbra, vis, vis,

I am everything

RENEW ME

and rescribe: you once touched my neck,gently - say this again;

and remit: shoestrike through gravel.Fighter planes overhead–

and revise: my eyes were dry fromrage and rage and rage

and revise: my eyes were dry fromnot speaking in so long, so let us,

and rewild: toothed ribbon tied inmy ghost hair, now about your wrist,

and retrieve: the rain, unknown, foreign,so sweet through wildfire dusk

and retrieve: the rain, known, foreign

and retrieve: me, through wildfire

and retrieve: me, unknown, wild

THE LAST OF THE SUMMER MUSK

aerosolhoney;

mollify thisgolden spool of

thread, theseunsung spirits,

tetrachromacy;

blinding, zephyriticeuphoria of the

evaporite, itshue so imbibed:

regrets asunder;egrets’ plunder;

lingual is theavian theft

as the sodic vapor, as the

apiary star-song,as this, the final

musk of summer.

d i v y a m . p e r s a u d © 2015