for Kaa (The Jungle Book)
Deep labyrinths, the jungle has shed skin,
vultures like stars light as silver gashes
where grass has evacuated songs of the bees
and an indigo branch shuffles in a bush,
the cries are wild and alive –
she twirls as fire trapped between walls
of rain, grey mists scale high temples,
silver clouds coat thick fur on the night,
her voice is a hiss caught in petals.
Speck of flame settles on the lip of a cave,
and the sky girdles her body like a snake,
she is a creature opening youth in angry
waters, there is a river fluttering
like the sheen of a steel ribbon under
orgasms of constellations. Her wrists
taper and swift. She wields like a geisha,
the moon splits into two skies.
First published in Nthanda Review