Emerald Butterflies

By A.J.R. Mennon

As bright and hot as the summer in Delhi gets

My skin has been stuck in winter for days.

In frantic harmony like that of drums

They beat their wings glinting green

As the gush of your laugh broke

From both earplugs to my chest:

I saw two emerald butterflies

And I sat thawing in my windowed cave. 

Not in three blinks was I snatched into a reverie

Where overhead, two planets spun

In an empty galaxy; Two planets touching

At their extremities—but instead of colliding

They spun for fire, for electricity to be born

Whose sparks on my skin started landing;

Charged as the wings of two emerald butterflies

Chasing one another just until both

Their faces touched— when my name you called—

And now to step out this windowed cave

I burn…I long.

By A.J.R. Mennon