She said, “it sounds like courting”
when you took me to the beach,
the wind blew my eyes to streaming,
we tried to stay on the hill.

He said “a poem is like a question:
neither true nor false”
I whispered “poetry is truth”
but I’d misunderstood.

I said “it shouldn’t be possible
to describe anyone in one sentence.”
You said “there isn’t much time,
try.”

I said “Outside my window a shimmering boy
carries his shoes, a jacket
and smokes, while I sweep sand
from beneath my pillow.”

© Saradha Koirala 2010