Over white sand
of crumbled stone
fingers trace
the nebulous places
of nowhere and everywhere we’ve know
a fluid continuum marked
by striations
fading

under desert glow I wait

without motion
without pretenses
haunted by
those inescapable eddies
thick and twisted as sin
separation from the familiar
from the scent of moments past
and the fervent collision of gods with skin

words © malai carrara
photography © nausher banaji

drowned in black river
of frozen spring
seeking the winds of summer
I am parched and crumbled
blistered by my limits
burned by waves of stale
edges shifting and unsettled
they undulate in a rhythm
where silence ends
and nocturne begins
and my spirit spills over like dust

words by carrara/banaji
photophraphy by Vadim Stein

Trace my thirst
to where the gilded sun
burns away the mist and
Flattens against the wall of my skin

Waterless mouth
I swallow for wanting
a symphony of bright shadows
And a stream of white lies

The ebb and flow of forgotten memories
drowns me out with the tide

Moonless glow
From an iridescent pupa
and born of ash we seek
to drift through pale walls

our sorrow left behind
forever goodbye

words © malai carrara
photography © nausher banaji

I crave your vintage
The smooth nectar
of sanguine orbs
ripe and aching
on curling tendrils

Unfold them like so
And express the sweet
The night color velvet
And heavenly choral
To quench my thirst

words © malai carrara
google image

She fights the stench
of rotting submission
with short inhales and mouth closed

she resists the scratchy skin
of inevitability
closing in around her

She digs her heels
Into the soft tissue
And her grief lets out

words © malai carrara
photography © nausher banaji

Today

I imagined you
at that little table
sitting as the locals do
Early in the morning
with an espresso at hand
Your eyes adjusting
Skin warmed by sun
And the aroma of languid
Curling off you like smoke

At one time....
I wished it could be me
Sitting next to you
Tasting the sugar on pastry
still flakey from the oven
or walking on cobbled ambiguity
in tempo enough with gods
while sipping a wine
of living and loving sweetly

At one time….

words © malai carrara
photography © nausher banaji

An eclipse cast by inky eyes
....drawing boundaries
....drowning light
And she is suspended in the moment

The sour taste of indecision
...mouth parched
...throat tightened
a fog-like silver ochre spilling a suffocating haze

And ghosts hover in dust
...waiting for surrender
...waiting for the light of day
by the stained window of expectations

words © malai carrara
photography courtesy of Klas Falk, Sweden

I feel what you feel in you
Emotional might of gladiators
skin soft as velvet
sweet glances of anticipation
while you seek my full mouth

I feel what you feel in you
The intertwining of our fingers
Resplendent and secure
The sinuous curves of language
Dissolving over skin

I feel what you feel in you
Your voice ascending mountain-tops
Silhouetting doubts
The closeness of our incense
Evaporating sweet

and as each moment
takes its place in memory
by now you must know my love
I feel what you feel


words © malai carrara
photography © nausher banaji

my invaded soul and paled heart
in alchemy i am curled
on white sand inconsolable


words © malai carrara
photography © nausher banaji

a sprinkling of limb
languidly draped under glow
warming the ache of alone 


© malai carrara

I loathe the taste of bland
And its contaminating effects
it leeches into veins like infection
an unbearable itch

but there is solace on cool planes of porcelain.
Bitters expel from my throat
And drift on sandalwood smoke
to circle the quiet

The quiet... within cimmerian walls
Where I banish myself from the temporal grip
Of whirling dervishes of prosaic dialogue
and celebrity gossip

Oh let me be
I want to slip into obscurity
Left alone with only my thoughts for companion
If only for just a short time




words © malai carrara
Photography by TrixyPixie

Drawn to a silhouette feathering
a shadowy portrait awaits you aqueous
over my placid blue your fingers wade
touching the edge of calm

words by malai carrara
painting by Fabian Perez

walls, nice walls..
an architecturally sound, safe and secure surface
where doubts are discarded
and fears are lost and all is happy
wall, nice walls....
and fences and hedges and 3 car attached garages
a cozy, bug free paradise
and a fat mortgage that suffocates our choices
like prison
to confine quiescent denizens
near the Wii and their tassimo
ramparts to hold all that is beautiful
perfectly landscaped and well organized
a place to collect things and save them
just in case
walls, nice walls...
the same surface to hold beauty out.
and after time, truth becomes untrue.
and all that surrounds us is our stuff
while all the while...on the other side
we overlook
the muted song of soft rain over vast fields
the sound of hurt....the feel of pain
the blacked out voice of authenticity

Devine stone surrounded
By sojourner's tribal chorals
A frenzied pageant of pietistic sophists
flaunting their weekend morals

They glare with sardonic wonder
At the great art he defends
These fear-mongering philistines
And their carrion feeding friends

But with a great breath from Gods
through raging migraine he wails...
Cast away from here your defiling eyes
and phony puritan veils!

written © malai carrara
photography by © nausher banaji

With eyes turned to heaven…

They arrived with their burdens

Carried high on their backs

They arrived with their sorrows

Carried deep in their bones

They arrived with their belief

To sing madrigals

© malai carrara

photography © nausher banaji