Her Embrace Poem by Unnikrishnan Sivasankara Menon

I had feared that
Rain had forgotten me
for, through the ominous Fall,
the abominable Winter
the unsweet Spring
and the seething searing summer
that spewed heat like venom,
I yearned for her cool embrace,
but she did not turn round
to cast a glance at me.

Yet, when Edavappathi* is here
the skies warp and she is here too
she wraps me cool in her fastest hug
drains me of every drop of me
spent like a colocasia leaf petiole
and she is on me again,
her embrace like gnarling embers.
*Edavappathi = Ides of the month of Edavam; ideally the first day of June when the SW Monsoon sets in in Keralam, India.