The Making of a Girl Goddess
Today in Nepal Matani received approval. Rice flowed
onto her godly head. Hail Kumari
as the cranes swoop low over the barley fields.
November caught us showering, mosquitoes
funneling the outhouse. Koran inscribed
on a grain of rice. Take it or leave it
with a grain of salt. A girl is tinder,
tinsel, sinews wrapped too tight. Her keepers
unskein their polyester hoods, the hives ahum
with spawning. That year the bees lost their way home.
Nectar pools in amber pellets on the bark, incredulous
to bleed. I lick your fingers pending further orders.
Once the bark is nicked the tree will drain away
in a hot pool of syrup. 'Tis sweet to die? Ask Daphne.
Her eyes were loon wings. Dew pooled
on fern fronds, snubbing inadequate ablutions.
Our tolerance for ceremony ran dry by noon.
Fallow be your heart, barren your furrow.
Asya Graf has previously published poetry, short fiction and literary criticism in Anderbo, Best Poem, Vestal Review, Comparative Literature and Paroles Gelees. She currently lives in NYC and teaches high school English in the Bronx.