from the once refrigerated apple on the bedside table
sprang the frozen blush of the ascending waist bone
brushed by the longing of a nerveless middle finger
that seemed way more interested in depth than range
its shyness drowned out by a bright red airplane taking off
on a runway behind a cheap lodge like a javelin released
from the throbbing grip of a palm that only weeks
back was slathering itself in luxurious moisturizer
in Room 302 of a hotel right next to a hospital it recognized
from a birth certificate framed and mounted on a shelf
in the dining room of another palm it loved but could never seduce
sober, the secret sauce of lateral libations needed to lubricate
the pumped aorta, the palm dovetailing towards another in four
dimensional space having counted all the change in the wallet
which amounted to a sum equaling a record of the most number
of goals scored in an international hockey match— the answer
won a school quiz competition when an exuberant palm pressed
the buzzer, the teenage mouth gushing the answer out to loud
cheers in an auditorium which over the years found itself reduced
to a derelict warehouse useful mostly for shooting fight scenes
of regional movies famous for depicting the hero and villain
in double roles so that you were never quite sure who was who
Satya Dash is the recipient of the 2020 Srinivas Rayaprol Poetry Prize and a finalist for the 2020 Broken River Prize. His poems appear in Poet Lore, ANMLY, Waxwing, Rhino Poetry, Cincinnati Review, and Diagram, among others. Apart from having a degree in electronics from BITS Pilani-Goa, he has been a cricket commentator. He has been nominated previously for Pushcart, Best of the Net, Orison Anthology and Best New Poets. He grew up in Cuttack and now lives in Bangalore, India. He tweets at: @satya043