Ya'aburnee

Karthika Naïr

When he is distant
When she secedes
When it deserts
When they detonate
Then.

When the sun melts
When snow seals
When the moon unravels
When land lifts anchor
Then.

When blue begins
When tongue is home
When dreams grow
When I am returned
Then.

When breath is distant, sometimes awol: that old, faithless swain
When skin secedes — submerging me in memory
When blood deserts, racing for the great outdoors
When cells detonate and strobe chests with meteorites

When the sun melts in rivulets on July
When snow seals January in glazed cellophane
When the moon unravels over the Marais (and I lead him home by unspun
                    hand)
When land lifts anchor in Seoul, birthing cherry trees

When blue begins to stain the black, woo Soulages and eclipse shellac
When tongue is the home that hitchhikes with me
When dreams outgrow flowerbeds or fears climb unweeded
When I am returned, an old sock turned: inside out, holes darned, yarn
                    trimmed, a swollen foot ice-packed, maybe ironed

Then, and then, and then, do I reach out to wrap myself in your voice.



Karthika Naïr is the author of a poetry collection, Bearings (HarperCollins India, 2009). She was born in India, lives in Paris, and works as a producer in performing arts. This proximity to performing arts, and to dance, in particular, is refracted in much of her poetry, which has been published in several anthologies and journals including Indian Literature, Caravan India, Mediterranean Poetry, Terre à Ciel, Penguin's 60 Indian Poets and the Bloodaxe Book of Contemporary Indian Poets, The Literary Review and The Poetry Review. Her poems have been translated into French and Italian. Naïr co-scripted British-Bangladeshi choreographer Akram Khan's piece, Desh – which won the 2012 Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Dance Production. Young Zubaan (India) and Editions Hélium (France) will soon be bringing out The Boy, the Bees and Bonbibi, one of the stories she wrote for Desh, as a children's book illustrated by Joëlle Jolivet. She is currently working on her next collection for HarperCollins, an account of the Mahabharata war in 18 voices.