Moon Over 60

Scalding moon
Slipping through the skylight
And into my eyes like an iris

Blitzkrieg moon
Strafing me with lotuses

You’ve got a new-etched rune –

You used to call me out into banyan avenues
To prowl like a cheetah
Growling and singing into half-forbidden treeshade

Used to open me like a peach-tin
Until my lost light spewed
Pagan and absolute –

Now you only give me peace
And unenviable twitching
Like a child’s toy on some feeble battery –
Now you’ve smoothed my belly,
Calmed its smoky vortex,
My pacing thighs
Lured me to a house in France
Where I see you
When I dart from my narrow bed
To make my frequent pee –

Mirror moon, my heart up there –
Solo, tender as shadows
But speaking still;
You mouth of light;
You open eye –

April 2013, Chateau Bellevue
Poem and illustration by Madhuri