RADHA ON THE TRADITION OF WRITING A SHATAKAM --100 STANZAS TO A MOOD by Reetika Vazirani

nothing restrained me like your leather grip
on your slate bed covered with aquamarine
mountain to sea I went on all fours cuffed
like a childdoganimal no
like love
& you wrote a shatakam for meerotic collides with you the divine you write I comply

that
come when I call you I came when you called me
not that I minded but
sometimes I minded
rub & suck of teeth on my thumb
fingers in my mouth missing you
by the Prajapati by the Yamuna
by the Ganges on a wet stone step at Holi
& purple rain comes flying from tin cans
a hundred stanzas
the myriad colors of this holiday paint
your purple cheek
red hair
blue arms
green & gold

pink & cream

saris drenched & blooming
festival colors at festival hours
you rub me down 300 verses model lover devoted nurse dancer
showgirl doll
on location
Himachal Pradesh
Andhra
Kerala
Kashmir
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