David Starkey
Rishikesh
Summer twilight,
when fruit bats cross
the darkening ocher sky like flocks
of swans,
when the long thin leaves
of the Ashoka trees tremble
like widows' fingers
in the warm breeze,
which carries the smoke of cooking fires,
the distant sound of bicycle bells
and scooter horns.
I watch her
gaze out the open window,
smoothing her lavender sari,
remembering,
as she has done for twenty years,
the Child of God her parents forbade her
to marry, and I think,
In all of South Asia,
there is no sadder woman than my wife.
Date of Birth: 1962 Location: Santa Barbara, California Email: starkey_d@hotmail.com Website: http://www.angelfire.com/il/kinglog/editor.html Books: Poetry Writing: Theme and Variations (NTC, 1999), Fear of Everything Awards: Winner of Palanquin Press's Spring 2000 chapbook contest Other: Teaches in the writing program at the University of California-Santa Barbara
