Fire spoke to her before the child was born, caressing her long hair, her pale skin
speaking sweetly, making sweet promises, seducing her into a state of insensibility.

The child beat its tiny fists against its watery cradle crying out voicelessly until
the woman heeded. And, let Fire play awhile, so no one could suspect what she
knew through the unborn child, no one would suspect what she was about to do.

Fire’s heat grew more amorous, fanning his desires until he made more promises, and more, but just as they thought that it was all done with, and was about to end, she leapt
over to the other side where Water waited quietly, but Fire was quick too, for the moment when her feet were poised to take the leap he reached out with his long tongue and gave her a kiss.

So she would always remember the bitter almond taste of his longing.

Rumjhum Biswas's prose and poetry have previously appeared in Etchings (Australia) The Little Magazine India (India), Eclectica, Nth Position (UK), The King's English, Halfway Down the Stairs, Arabesques Review, Crannog, Clockwise Cat, Chanterelle's Notebook, A Hudson View (South Africa),   Lily Literary Review, The Paumanok Review, Poems Niederngasse (Switzerland), Unlikely Stories, Cerebration (UK), Amarillo Bay, Gowanus, Loch Raven Review and Southern Ocean Review (New Zealand). Her poem "Cleavage" was longlisted in the Bridport Poetry Competition 2006. Three of her poems have been published by Unisun Publishers (India) in their 2007 anthology The Silken Web. At present, this erstwhile copywriter lives and writes in Chennai.