We never spoke, never sat face to face.

Our company evaporated with the morning dew.

The midday sweat dried up on the quilted

rice field: our wornout scarfs and robes
    reincarnated as embroidered ripples

    all around, a blossom in the centre,

    the rainbow snakes guarding the borders.

    We never sat face to face, never spoke.
We hung like twin mangoes

from the forked bough of an ancient tree.