Moonstruck Peanut-Wallah Poem by Bernard Henrie

Nadia, I have walked passed your house
against my will. Did you see my shadow?
The drunk, moonstruck peanut-wallah
lounging under a light pole, worthless
and ruined. How faultless, how endless this
story of a poor man unwisely loving a star.
The street falls silent, the water-wallah asleep
beside his dented copper pot, dogs curled
in ragged cribs as the mild evening air cools
my fever, but your window never opens.
I do not recognize myself in this state,
but I will learn to pull a mask over my face,
speak with the ventriloquist's skill, show no one
a heart written with a Hindi glyph of your name.