Tongue
by and published in Edition Ten of Pomegranate
In a bath the Maharaja Bakhat Singh
douses a courtesan with coloured water
from his handmade golden syringe.
At fourteen he took his father’s throat
in hand and twisted like an orange
above a glass, wringing the power out.
Now while the adult Maharaja lunges
for the submerged concubine, his daughter
plucks a sitar but won’t sing:
her tongue was slit and cauterised
for something that she saw. Who knows.
To bring it up wouldn’t be civilised
and Bakhat Singh is civil and it shows.
His pleasure tent is stitched with a motif
of tendrils: silver, pinks and yellows,
golden raindrops pinging off a roof
where here a monsoon-cloud swells like revenge
and splits with an immense, unearned relief.
John Clegg
John Clegg was born in 1986 and studies for a PhD in Durham. Some of his poems are featured in the upcoming Salt Book of Younger Poets, as well as Succour, The Rialto, Mercy and online at Pomegranate. His e-chapbook Advancer is published by Silkworms Ink, and a full collection is forthcoming from Salt.