Don'T Condemn Me Poem by Ram Krishna Singh

DON’T CONDEMN ME

It’s still linked but I don’t understand
or don’t want to understand

I am too much with me and worry
about her dying libido and my

own shrinking sex amidst salsa chill
Bihu fever, Vishu rituals

ringing emptiness day and night shake
the age-wrapped youth for single-edge play

in forked flame carve image of heaven
to challenge the jealous God undo

sins of races flowing in my blood:
I love Him through the bodies He made

but they don’t understand redemption
in churning and parting of the sea

they don’t rejoice the flames of henna
on her palms nor let the lily bloom

in the valleys use the clefts and cliffs
to deface beauty and spike voices

don’t condemn me if I am not white
the water still flows in my river


-R.K.SINGH