"A Style of Loving"

Light now restricts itself
To the top half of trees;
The angled sun
Slants honey-coloured rays
That lessen to the ground

As we bike through
The corridor of Palm Drive.
We two

Have reached a safety the years
Can claim to have created:
Unconsummated, therefore
Unjaded, unsated.
Picnic, movie, ice-cream;
Talk; to clear my head

Hot buttered rum -- coffee for you;
And so not to bed.

And so we have set the question
Aside, gently.
Were we to become lovers
Where would our best friends be?
You do not wish, nor I
To risk again

This savoured light for noon's
High joy or pain.

-- Vikram Seth

As always, this poem is for Hope-of-male-species

*The image is a still from Re-take of Amrita by Vivan Sundaram, a digital photomontage. And also made into an experimental film, one of my favourites...