the ferocity of strangers

(For Dr. SRA)

 

I understand your divinity

You, my devotion

 

We are enthralled

into an eternal lip lock

 

savage and whole

 

i once asked a lover

why do lips swell?

 

he said they were like seeds

of the hibiscus

that sieve

off love.

growing up.

my heartbeat is exposed

Keya,

in the form of you growing up

raw, round nervous cells

under the sticky wet

as you fly from lusting hands

of family to those of forty thousand ayahs.