First Anniversary, With Monkeys

Periyar Nature Preserve There is no crumbly frozen cake to thaw. Today, we are in the jungle. I mean mosquito. I mean tigers and elephants sludging their way to the lake for a drink and Don’t make sudden moves or snakes startled from an afternoon nap will greet you fang first. I think we are lost. Too hot for any cold confection to survive. Even my tube of sunblock is as warm as a baby’s bottle. You get to those places I can’t reach, those places I dared not even whisper before I walked down the aisle in white. You never worried if our families would clash, if they would clang like the clutch of pale monkeys clanging the thin branches of the treetrops, begging for our trail mix. You never worried about my relatives staring at your pale, muscled calves— things not usually seen outside of the bedroom. You wore hiking shorts anyway. And still, they lavished ladle-fuls of food on your plate. I think we are lost. My eyes are dark and wet as that wild deer that walked right past us, a little off the trail. I think we are lost, but for once I don't mind. Eventually you turn us back to a place not on any map, but I know I can trace it back with my finger if we ever need it again. We made it one year without a compass and we’re not about to start now.