Dinner Party Poem by Ananta Madhavan

By candlelight the faces thaw
From crystalline to orangeade,
Runnels of laughter circulate
With salad in the tender glow.

We sup of flesh and pare the bones
With lazy surgery precise,
The lady on my left withdraws
Her reticule from silken dunes,

Repairs her lips on hollowed mouth,
A cavity which I ignore
To bring my right-hand neighbour fire
Straight from the pillar's burning pith;

And peer into the petalled flame,
Whose rim of blue has mysteries
Profounder than the yawn relays
Which, after dessert, host the room.

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