Backflip and Other Poems by Barnali Ray Shukla

We plucked stars, air brushed  
constellations named after you,

somersaults on strings attached
let in air, for ties to breathe easy

in the mountains of letters we didn’t
write, didn’t post to addresses

we called our own, over a delta
of choices, sculpted in time with your

eyes on my face, my shoulder, in Morse
code, as we wait for the Universe to listen.

If you find her on the way,
don’t tell her she is lost,
she’s not,
not lost,
not looking,
just fearful that she held back
much longer than day wore night
nights wore years and skirmishes

Laugh lines make way
tears smudge her ballads  
but not any more, mascara
in place and lipstick, fuchsia

Look for her at the deep end
of the ink pot, she is looking to
swim back to her shore again,
sing again, fly, dance, walk  
on her crows’ feet,  check
the yellowed list of lust
                                               again.

The letters I write on water
reach your shoulders

You swim  a   w   a   y  
from the delta
that tasted your birth
Waters burst as
your cries wore tides
that chose air that
made you
stand on gills that you still
breathe in water,
     alone,   
                   safe
                           nothing
They tried to drown you
In the name of birth, without an
Apology or even a choice if you
Want to be born, be, become…