Monsoon on the Fingers of God

In this, his sixth book of poetry, Persaud, born in Guyana, continues his exploration of form, and improvisations on styles, rhythm/taal, mood and scope, as he looks to questions of identity and history.

Monsoon on the Fingers of God
(Ravi Shankar 1920-2012)

Forgetting the guru's daughter or the first or second loves?
reporters seeking out sex and scandal?
third or fifth affairs or ragas; Monterey

Or Woodstock hippies, not crazies,
now, setting an instrument on fire burning a hand of god, forget

Estranged and unestranged offspring loved unloved, forget all but this thing lotused from Saraswattie's vina* teardrops or raindrops

Monsoon on the fingers of god