They are bicycling into the sun.
He has a dhoti on under his coat
and a briefcase with LYRIC
marked in big letters.

She has a sari in lime green
and socks and a backpack
that is filled with scraps
of torn silk

She drops a fan as she
races past the balustrade
into sky blue water.
The fan opens

and slips into the shape
an oyster makes when
it whorls a pearl.
Something of great price

is torn from her and the man
on his bicycle who is wheeling
at the edge of the crater
cannot see or hear.

Soon as the poet had it
they will be pecked to death
by a partridge. Soon they will drop
into dark water