The Aftertaste
Love springs like sprigs of spring leafs,
Caresses like a whiff from a lover’s wrist,
Lips red like rose’s velvet sleeves
Weave in veins love’s blooming kiss.
On fiery days love dances and leaps,
Summer sparks set souls ablaze,
Spiders tiptoe with love so deep,
Loose kites at sea see storms embrace.
Pouring rain rakes piles of letters,
Wet with tears and crumpled torn,
Furnace flinches from unkindled papers,
And leaves love languid in autumn morn.
Heaven weeps in winter’s song,
And powders the garden with white dust.
On a barren beach a gull flies along,
Love leaves shells and hollow husks.
Hearth’s heat drowns in the downpour,
Lightning strikes burn love bitter,
While a lover’s spat leaves lovers sore,
Monsoon moon clouds hearts with oleander.
Love buried and antidote abandoned,
Poisonous palate tastes like a bruising kiss,
But love departs and lies syphoned,
Makes laughters erode at a heart’s hiss.
As one learns when love loosens wit,
When in love sweet is the burnt broth,
But when love wanes at a crossing split,
Sour is the sugar from blissful days before.*
Flood flows south to where blood rushes,
Acrid fumes seep from the flume,
Forsaken nest of tongue and touch,
Teeth bites treacle-coated doom.
In a vacant house on memory stream,
Whispers walk among ashes of webs,
Cold bed sheds sheets of dream,
Hope smothered, nothing left.
Love, how far is an arm’s reach?
When the arm strokes digits on the wall,
And from the branch an owl screeches,
But a lone shadow dances in the hall.
Sea billows roll blankets of sorrow,
Tears of salt slither down sullen cheeks,
Chains of words between the beak of a crow,
Beady eyes swallow vows it speaks.
Misery lures moths to flame,
Hands drift apart on thin ice plain,
Faded memories haunt the mounted frame,
Honey moults and hatred stains.
Throats quench thirst in desert’s dune,
Red muscle throbs in body frail,
As heart stirs awake under electric moon,
Satellites laugh at heart’s stifled wail.
Feet tread on paths with no resolve,
Falling sands snuff out the last ember,
River reaps rancid taste once loved,
Smoke swirls from love once tender.
*This stanza was loosely translated from Thai. The original verse was taken from Sunthorn Phu’s epic poem, Phra Aphai Mani (1844).
