Candela

                                Measure of luminous intensity

​Popsicles of foam 

& sand is warm butter On my mind:

all our ways of dying.

A bright canopy

like the breadth of sky

spreads its hands as if in welcome.

Thank you for sharing

your waking moments

with me. I never bargained

for so much closeness

with another human. Like mussel byssus,

we are hundreds of threads. As if

glued to wave-threatened rock.

Seaweed smell, its blunt

muttony stipe & kelp.

Like animals we plan a foray.

We’re living keen

as black pelican beak

which understands water

by piercing it.

Its wings embrace

the inescapable periwinkle

Two kites

rapport in the sky,

saturated & vibrant as

lemon with salt.

Anindita Sengupta is the author of Walk Like Monsters (Paperwall, 2016) and City of Water (Sahitya Akademi, 2010). She…