The Sabattier Effect

I’m oversaturated

exposed to light

to the point of transmutation

another year

another cyclone

my body’s lost definition

seeps into the tropical surrounds

of an island shaped like a dodo

I haven’t written for days

all the paper in the village

sweats with humidity

resists ink and lead

from hibiscus-coloured pens

sheaves stick together

like perspiring skin

folding onto itself

with clammy persistence

there are no mountains

to entice or capture clouds

straying over this coral atoll

it swelters and steams

collects cyclones in water tables

beneath its crust

I want to read about love

reconstruct glory and exhaltation

but don’t be fooled

reciting love poems

restoring cathedrals

it’s all the same

the fabric of construction

a foil for the soul

like any sarcoma

it reveals itself

eventually

just as exposure to light

has triggered metamorphosis

the Sabattier effect

rendered me androgynous

my silhouette

now a crumpled eggbeater

on a sodden matress

recalls your touch

fragrant as frangipani

forever gone

your form

so lush and fleshy

I got lost in you

once you stroked my slight curves

whispered in my ear

who’d know

you’ve given birth to men

wrote

I love you

in cyrillic script

on a shred of paper

I keep for the sliver of passion

left in me