The Jamun Tree Poem by Seema Jayaraman

'Jamun' tree

It was dusk when I tumbled
into the surprisingly warm folds of
of the old'Jamun' tree
Snuggly fitting into It's gnarled roots
Hidden from the street lamps
That glowed dim with drunken stupor
In its depths
away ftom the flickering tongues
Of powerful headlamps
You fluted me into full bloom
Whitling away my denials
One by one till it became a habit
A rightful objective
To settle into the warmth of your lap
Kept as a downy lining
between the distant stars
And the wet maleable earth beneath
Drinking in the twilight
Flitting in each others eyes
I swore i could measure
the depths of your tawny irises
All the way to the neighbouring milky way
And you conversely worked
On reading the micro dimensions
Of my curved eyelashes
Till we fit into the point
Of a proton before the big bang
Time worked mysteriously
Flying with the speed of light
When I was there with you
In our make shift cul-de-sac
Yet it seemed like eons
When I waited for twilight
To stroll in with you
for our scintillating interlude
The tanginess of purple juice
On entwined tongues
Crushed between shared teeth
Caught and savoured by locked lips
And then the endless kisses
To wash away the purple stain
Of forbidden Jamun fruit
Upon my lips
From the isolated groove
And then it was time to
Untangle ourselves
from each other's warmth
From the wilderness
of intermingled breaths
You used to tenderly tone
the give away signs
Brushing my runaway hair
And ironing my crumpled blouse
With your trembling hands
Shoving me on the last train to home
I carried those stains
Wrapped from prying eyes
And here I am still scrubbing away
Those purple stains from the jamun tree
Having left indelible marks
Upon my bruised being
An yearning to soak myself
In the viscuous ink of your being
All these decades away
- - -
Seema Jayaraman,21 July 2018