Conversion: An Allegory

- P K Vijayan I grapple with hostilities every night:

Hooves with long green tongues, claws,
Breasts rolling on furry thighs, clouds
Bursting into teeth in the horizon
They approach, they surround, they fall,
Feed on me with dry nibbling beaks.
Borne forward thus on flailing arms,
On cries spilling my throat into waxing skies,
I arrive, I am here, I stare:
Mirrors floating on thick body smells
Suck me into their startled multiplied eyes.
I am gone now, bent on refractions,
Watch my gestures sprout like grass,
Shimmer within water mirror glass.
I am gone, feel on my other sides,
The slow growth of beaks and scales
Soon we will go a-hunting.