If Jerusalem is going to be built “in England’s green and pleasant land”, it’s going to be built in bubble wrap. Before entering, indeed before getting close, we will be warned repeatedly of the metaphoric city’s sharp metaphoric edges and its slippery-when-wet metaphoric steps. Just in case.

We will be told to get there by driving [...]

Embrace
His hands
Emboldened by a moment’s hesitation
A second’s surrender, in which
the awkward juxtaposition
of what he’d always imagined
with what he’d never dared
hung heavy and sultry in the surrounding air
Those hands
That slid up and around
And around and over
In that moment
Snuck
under

Rekha
How foreign in your finery
My friend of summer sleeves and jelly knees
Your schoolgirl scars now hidden
Under the heavy manthra-codi
Tonight he will uncover them
Tonight he will tug at your ponytail
Tip over
Your ice-cream dreams
And let them drip
Down that aisle you never can return
To our gang of rhymes and roller-skates
Tomorrow morning you will be his Wife
And he, [...]