At The Turn Of The Road Poem by Shikhandin Shikhandin

Is it dusk already? The doves
on the electric pole must have gone home.
In here, your heart is bleeding away
into the pool of your unbearable solitude.
When did the eggs crack open?
When did their wings become dry?
The sun had laughed at you from behind his screen
of clouds. You had turned to face the wind
once, twice, thrice.
But the answers were always the same.
And now, it doesn't matter anymore. Nothing
takes away the sharpness
of knives whittling down bones.
Soon, they will be gone. You will not
know the hour of departure when it comes,
even after the door has closed behind them.

Wake up

To the grass bending to receive
its daily pint of dew. To the road lying quiet
beneath the stampede of day. To last
night's embers that still harbour
a spark or the hope of a spark. It's time
to go back to that last full moon, when
you had an urge to pluck the orb
fresh off the sky and place it on
your warm sticky tongue. White
as the flavour of spearmint gum,
and as cold as a slice of arctic ice,
melting slowly, radiating

its aura around you.

This is the taste of solitude.
Its sweetness is divine. Its touch thinner
than a dove's eggshell. Its scent
more delicate than a damselfly's wing. And,
its harmony is one that can never be known
in the company of constant love.

(First Published in Per Contra, USA)