we had seen them hovering in the sky directly overhead

we did not know that these watchmen in the sky would come by for
their fee like the Nepali comes by once a month for his ten rupees
and that we'd start waiting for them and that in waiting for them
we too would be caught by the same birds

we did not know that those whom we’d seen hovering directly
overhead would open their parachutes and collide with the same
nests as they fell and that dodging the frenzied firing in the air
we’d place a palm between the earth and the falling metaphor like
an afternoon between morning and evening

love is a nest made in the open

watching that metaphor we did not know that when the sky falls
with or without a parachute on this nest made in the open to hold
out against weather, heavenly watchmen, animals, souls and
meteors the nest falls apart and the sky caught in its twigs also falls
apart

if you happen to see somewhere those who were hovering over our
heads you will have ten rupees in your pocket won’t you?

outside
this whole construct
I declare