Three interactions

…expressed in three recently-written poems by Madhuri

Dream Tango

Like a mango Dreamsicle,
you held me round

Then you bent me backwards
like Tango

Before I could think a thing

you bent me more,
and sideways,
and sideways again,
and upside down,

So that I was waving in the air
like a scarf trailed in water

And every bend was a revelation
for those muscles abandoned
their daily focus
and all that dogged holding –

Each bend totally let go of everything
that joint or sinew had ever held

Here, here, here – I live inside a moving
cave, my body –
and it is amorphous,
and oh, oh,
letted go –

This losing is the best thing in the world
and every Tango tangle
makes my heart lift off
with giant wingspread,
and the rest of me
(though my mind comments happily,
like a sports announcer)
is rapturously abandoned
as if no more

for Kohrogi-sensei
Luddendenfoot, March 2025

Rome

Sometimes in a book I’ll see mention of Rome
Sometimes someone I know will say they’ve been there
It always seems strange to me
that anybody’d just casually sling the name around like that

– that wolf suckling the two human infants,
the spiky fur hanging low around the swelled teats –

after what happened to me there.

I didn’t go to the police – I sensed that they would dismantle me
for bored sport

Oh Roma –

You moved on me like a jumping spider
big as half a room
with black curls on its head
angry for no reason

I don’t want to remember but I cannot forget
a city of sudden animals,
silhouetted against ancient tiles,
hissing supercilious suggestions in 5 languages

56 years ago, but
I still don’t like to hear its name

March 2025, Luddendenfoot

A Black and Gold Tabby

I was out on a walk
There was cat-longing in me, as so often
But all I usually see is little dogs in coats
trotting before be-coated persons;
or the huge German Shepherd
who yells murder at me through his window,
scrabbling on the glass with his great paws.

But today I went up a back road
and here comes a kitty, from far away
walking in a hurry
straight along the sidewalk.
I stand stock still.

I look elsewhere.
I wait.
I monitor with the corner of my eye.

Exactly as if to order
the cat angles suddenly towards me.
Rubs around my shins,
then flops down behind me and rolls.
Gets up, comes to
the front
rolls again – so there is no
mistake about it, no neglect,
her wide black stripes on an old-gold field
flipping to the long stomach
of royal gold –

She shows me, shows me
her indisputable wealth

then jumps up and continues on her way.

This was a perfectly-calibrated visit
A delightful choreography
A gesture of solidarity
towards a stranger:
“Oh, don’t both of us love
my golden tum?
I’m feeling generous, my friend –
and I know you need this –
so here I am, fully me, for this moment
gifted to you.
Goodbye!”

I walked then
onto the narrow path
that goes into the winter woods…
and I was lifted up
among them,
went weightless to the arching
little bridge
and on towards home.

Luddendenfoot, January 2025

Featured image by Jonathan Sloane: iStock Getti