my lover and the tree

my lover tried to put the trunk
or bough of a large tree
into the north sea.

this tree, bewilded, caked
with mining waste and oxidized
wacke pebbles faced

these waves with a bristling
candor, a take-me-or-not
glare into the whistling wind;

and beau, mired
in the trebles of this riotous
beach, a cackle and screech—

what ardor!—stuck
his feet into the thing;
past cobble and kelp-vine,

until it settled in the crook
of the sea’s lazing back—
and hear the waves’ din:

the tide’s coming in!

nuclear

          I stretched skin
of guava
          across my mouth

          captured
specks
          granite

          mountain ion
blood yellow
          gum swell electron

          bullet

undetonated

Divya M. Persaud is a writer, composer, and planetary scientist of Indo-Caribbean heritage from New Jersey. She is the recipient of The (Great) Indian Poetry Collective Editor’s Choice Award for her forthcoming experimental book of poetry, do not perform this, and the author of poetry collections color (2016) and de caelo et tellure (2015). Her poems have appeared in The Deaf Poets Society, Anomaly, and The A3 Review. Divya is additionally the composer of THEY WILL BE FREE: a song cycle (2017), an album that fuses epic poetry and contemporary classical music. Divya is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in planetary imaging in the United Kingdom.