Sunrise at Sanchi Stupa - Tishani Doshi

We were sitting outside the stupa that morning when the sun shone

down like a woman sweeping clear roads of dust

and dreams making me wonder if love can find its way like this

through broken valleys past shattered edge of bramble thorn

and bruised foundation of of monastery

all-conquering love doesn't stir in the dark to talk to guards

doesn't have the quietness of cows doesn't run with incense rage

across the bougainvillea fringe of the world

If love were really born of fire we'd build giant domes of sky

around our gossiping pasts and silence them

with bits of tooth or graft of hoary nail we'd let the roads consume

our steps our columns of desire

and when morning broke the scattering earth with blood red

points of light all the distances of night

would brush us by as the undergrowth of our unfinished lives

---

Tishani Doshi (born 1975) India

Source: Tishani Doshi website