| namita kiran-thuene |
Posted
on 16-May-01 11:10 AM
A woman And Her Gods
My smiling dead father sits next to
My somber deceased grandmother
On the top sits grandpa in his Military regalia.
II
Buddha on Lotus, sitting in a amitabha position
Smiles serenely at
Krishna -laddu in his hand – mischievous(!).
III
A shrine, a morgue, a cemetery.
He beat my mother as often as we
would eat rice
‘He’ did not hear her plea.
IV
‘He’ still smiled mysteriously.
My grandmother closed her windows very quietly,
My brother fiddled with his guitar absentminded,
I hung on her elbow
- Blindly.
V
The monks chant ‘Buddham Saranam Gacchami’
Below my mother’s window – “I take refuge in you…”
The caked blood on the pavement,
broken red glass bangles making a swirling pattern
in the glorius morning sun.
VI
All the gods and deceased
look at each other
and bow their heads down
Shamefully,
The deceased gods with half closed eyes
pretend to meditate- nonchalantly.
|
