What is this drink but
The April sun, squeezed
Like an orange in
My glass? I sip the
Fire, I drink and drink
Again, I am drunk
Yes, but on the gold
of suns, What noble
venom now flows through
my veins and fills my
mind with unhurried
laughter? My worries
doze. Wee bubblesring
my glass, like a brides
nervous smile, and meet
my lips. Dear, forgive
this moments lull in
wanting you, the blur
in memory. How
brief the term of my
devotion, how brief
your reign when i with
glass in hand, drink, drink,
and drink again this
Juice of April suns.
Summer in Culcutta
About the poet
Kamala Das
Kamala Das (born Kamala; 31 March 1934 – 31 May 2009), popularly known by her one-time pen name Madhavikutty and married name Kamala Das, was an Indian English poet as well as a leading Malayalam author from Kerala, India. Her popularity in Kerala is based ch…
View profile & all 15 Poems / StoriesMore from Kamala Das
The Testing Of The Sirens
The night, dark-cloaked like a procuress, broughthim to me, willing, light as a shadow,
Forest Fire
Of late I have begun to feel a hungerTo take in with greed, like a forest fire that
The Rain
We left that old ungainly houseWhen my dog died there, after
The Stone Age
Fond husband, ancient settler in the mind,Old fat spider, weaving webs of bewilderment,
The Sunshine Cat
They did this to her, the men who know her, the manShe loved, who loved her not enough, being selfish
