P&P: RadiKahl Poetry and Prose - Poetry, Prose, Songwriting, Environmental Literature

P&P Poem

THE BUZZ

AUTHORS
Maya Khosla reflects

ECOLIT
Environmental Literature

EXHIBIT
Marc Pandone Landscapes

MAGAZINES

Ravens’ Undoing

From Keel Bone by Maya Khosla

Ravens stole her dentures again.
We climbed the spindly branches,
dug into the tangle,
clutched at her teeth.
The ravens in their half-made nest above,
shouting down their thickest language
like dark rain, tricksters scolding.
Achiamma below, toothless, hands on hips:
What do they think they are making,
Taj Mahal? You’d think she loathes animals,

but when dusk draws out the geckos,
Achiamma offers them rice lumps
trembling at the ends of long sticks.
Rind-tough bodies crawl out the cracks,
up walls, their necks thick as cane-root
shudder, gulp, and shudder for more.

Must feed their eye and scale,
feed the thick meat of memory.
Helps them remember us, keep us safe—

Geckos nod, upside-down push-ups.
The flesh-wrapped coals of their eyes
bulge as moths spin and bump
around the lamps’ glass-cheeked fire.
The reptiles rip forward, some catch wing-crumples,
some land on the floor with a clap.

Achiamma shapes gecko-eyes in the dust
to draw away ills, ravens’ longings,
then she darkens the windows with clove-steam
to suck out the evening’s colors.
Now ravens’ jungly eyes won’t wander
further than their nest.

MORE

THE BUZZ

Maya Khosla has a new book out called Keel Bone. More from Maya here.

Her words are the very particular stones and weather, the rivers and homes, the creatures and people, trapped and free in their momentary events, in their momentary landscapes, the resonances, fears and joys of the many worlds of her poems. These worlds, these poems, of Keel Bone are their own reality of reaching, extraordinary and not to be missed. —Pattiann Rogers

Some works by Maya Khosla are available online:

P&P offers you our selection of authors here.

Maya Khosla performs at the annual Watershed Environmental Poetry Festival in Berkeley, CA