the large-flowered jasmine blooms
in the gathering dusk
the white-cotton wick in the oil-lamp
burns red
in the flushed skies
a broken bangle of conch-shells like the
        crescent moon
floats
a black cuckoo pecks
at the fragrant pollen of the mango branch
a whetstone covered with silver dust

this forest
its clusters of golden blossoms of the
dark-branched mast-wood trees
moist cool shady as darkness itself
beside it
the white sands
as bright as many moons heaped together
ivory flowers of the sea-pine washed by the
        waves

listen to the roaring swell
of the sapphire-dark sea
the fishermen's boats have not returned
soon the rain will hide sky and land

but he has not come