I have it down to a science

but they say it is an art too

I have been shaping

mantras

from my lips to yours my eyes are waterfalls

they travel into yours

that night, I had brought

your favorite books along

you preferred silence, your

fingers encasing my spine

they knew each vertebra, its code

I wipe you down, cooling your fever

reminding you about

your tinctured tongue– sharp and electric how my words

have spent centuries

inside your spinal fluid

syllable

by syllable

embedding

stubborn stories from my atlas to your axis

I grasp at your iris, the fish floating

inside them, they mist over

for one last time, as if to sip

at the full bellied cry

that is rising in me,

your pulse gripping my fingertips

as I listen to your errant beating

at Erb’s point—

         lub dub

         lub dub

         lub dub

perfect punctuations

a dancing wind chime

I cover your absent face

with one porous poem

the final one, an obituary

written by your bedside

I let it unfurl, like a new born leaf

it bleeds a hibiscus into your veins

as they calcify, I braid your hair

        and as they get ready with a checklist

        I sterilize my hands with your stillness

1. Chitrakatha – chitra meaning picture and katha meaning story. 

Chitrakatha is the Indian cultural tradition of women narrating stories with a visual aid.