​Poems by Mani Rao 

So that you know
​
Trimming the overgrown silences of the night
Scissor beaks
It may be early unlit but the birds have begun to boil  buds are growing wings and the tree will rise featherborne
One row of birds like a stem bipinnate will curve nicely to the breeze
One large bunch will turn like a wheel and then somersault  you will see   a crashing tree   root fist twisting up   cumulus head rolling down
Blackbirds will burst a packet of tacks
A stork quadrant will appear with the mythical carpet
Chirping chandeliers will swing in from the sky in time for dusk


Star-crossed 
You hold on to this cloud I hold on to that
Shouting the shapes over each other’s voices
Everything turns to water  darling
Tired?   
Sleep …
 
The riddle of the moon has been busted
Tell me why
Insatiable shift
 
Why we take to terraces gardens
Wherever we can fly silhouettes
Turning our heads  slightly in love
Try on the moonring    
It never fits
 
Your face the shadow of a witch
 
Sleep on the flatbed of stars
Sleep on history
Sleep in the shape of Pegasus Orion Aquila Cygnus
Heaving net
Someone always playing at Vega
 

About the poet

Mani Rao (b. 1965, India) is the author of eight poetry books and two books in translation-- of the Bhagavad Gita as a modern poem, and Kalidasa for the 21st Century Reader. Her poems and essays are in numerous journals and anthologies including W.W.Norton’s Language for a New Century and the Bloodaxe Book of Contemporary Indian Poets. Mani worked for 20 years in advertising and television fields in India, Hong Kong and New Zealand. She has an MFA in Creative Writing, and is presently a PhD student at Duke University for a dissertation on mantras.