Tambulasena

     from ‘The Courtesans Reply’
 
In the beginning
my whole body was covered with skin
hard as rock. Then he came
 
and his mouth
running over me was a river, cool and quick
with small silver fish.
 
Night after night
he shaped me
and smoothed me
 
down
to velvet
bones.
 
**
 
Now I bathe while he watches,
his eyes
fireflies on my skin.
 
I bend over,
my hair a curtain of water
between us.
 
I let him towel me dry,
his strokes soft at first, then brisk
like a cloth shining a lamp.
 
Water drips down
my back. He grasps the rope
of my hair and climbs.
 

Shazea Quraishi

published in Modern Poetry in Translation, ‘Freed Speech’ Issue, 2009;
and in TEN: New poets from Spread the Word, 2010, Bloodaxe