---

…slid down the banana leaf,

placed his feet firmly on the parapet,

sneaked in through the holes in the old curtain,

caressed the hanging devil’s ivy,

rolled into my coffee mug,

rose like Athena,

spread on the pomegranate

on the table,

squeezed himself into a ruby seed,

kissed on my lips,

dribbled down my breasts,

tickled my navel,

rustled my hair

raised his hat

and jumped off the balcony.

 

Here’s one who knows his entry and exit!

---

Nithya Mariam John is a poet, translator and editor from Kerala, India. Apart from her three short collections of poems titled Ruminations and Reflections : A Pinch of Poetry & Perspectives, Bleats and Roars and  Poetry Soup, her scribblings are housed in Indian Literature, The Alipore Post, Borderless, gulmohar quarterly, theravenquothpress (Dreams), latinanthology (Memories on Food), Hyderabad Literature Festival-Khabar, Muse India, The Samyuktha Poetry, Malayalam Literature Survey and are forthcoming in Usawa Literary Review and Sanglap . She loves pothos, sugar and milk. But nothing matches her love for books.