Eunice de Souza Poems

Keep cats
if you want to learn to cope with
the otherness of lovers.
...

In every Catholic home there's a picture
of Christ holding his bleeding heart
in his hand.
I used to think, ugh.
...

Poems have order, sanity
aesthetic distance from debris.
...

As a matter of fact I do.
I contemplate, with a certain
grim satisfaction,
dynamic men who sell better butter.
Sometimes I down a Coke
implacably at the Taj.
This morning I terrorized
(successfully)
the bank manager.
I look striking in red and black
and a necklace of skulls.
...

It's time to find a place
to be silent with each other.
I have prattled endlessly
in staff-rooms, corridors, restaurants.
When you're not around
I carry on conversations in my head.
Even this poem
has forty-eight words too many.
...

My Portuguese-bred colleague
picked up a clay shivalingam
one day and said:
Is this an ashtray?
No, said the salesman,
This is our god.
...

Father X. D'Souza
Father of the year.
Here he is top left
the one smiling.
By the Grace of God he says
we've had seven children
(in seven years).
We're One Big Happy Family
God Always Provides
India will Suffer for
her Wicked Ways
(these Hindu buggers got no ethics)

Pillar of the Church
says the parish priest
Lovely Catholic Family
says Mother Superior

the pillar's wife
says nothing.
...

Keep cats
if you want to learn to cope with
the otherness of lovers.
Otherness is not always neglect -
Cats return to their litter trays
when they need to.
Don't cuss out of the window
at their enemies.
That stare of perpetual surprise
in those great green eyes
will teach you
to die alone.
...

Poems have order, sanity
aesthetic distance from debris.
All I've learnt from pain
I always knew,
but could not do.
...

Luminous new leaf
May the sun rise gently
on your unfurling

in the courtyard always linger

the smell of earth after rain

the stone of these steps
stay cool and old

gods in the niches
old brass on the wall

never the shrill cry of kites
...