The Temple of No Name
to the unknown Devi.
There was no name of a temple
That was simple
The tourist guessed,
So he elapsed sometime to take photographs.
What kind of Temple it was, he did not know.
He was happy there and after a while
He wanted to go.
But he could not,
He looked around,
Something fishy and sizzling sound;
There was none he found,
Only his shadow.
Yes! His shadow was apart
Not with him and it was walking
The tourist was still standing
And seeing it went to the Temple.
He became numb
And his voice was dumb
Only was he felt a viper crawling his thigh
No chance to sigh
No good-bye.
He dropped himself on the ground
He lost all sound
He was no more.
He had left the Earth before
His shadow left him.
But the poor shadow
No way to return and no way to go
Far better, it chose to stay in the Temple,
Remembering the chase after
The dear human body
No chance to be together.
The night emerged
And the shadow mixed with the dark
Wall to wall it followed the spark
Of the phosphorus
Out of the corpse.
It wept with the owl and flipped with the bat,
It shared its sorrow with the temple’s black cat.
Then it felt silence
Listening the Temple’s grievance
The oldest breeze blew
Thousand years ago it was once flew
In this midnight it came,
The leaves whispered among them
The Devi of the snake
The power that can take
The souls of many.
The folks knew and afraid
None dared to raid,
The horror Temple.
She used to prey in dark
And she chases the phosphorus spark.
One day her venom pierced a Dervish
She did with her whimsical wish.
The Dervish was dying and cursed upon her,
“I will die and you will lose your power,
Killing innocent is not the sign of Devi
Your Temple will be ruined and that should be,
Oh, Lord! Grant my plea.”
And the Heaven accepted
With a condition of demise,
With the snakes, with the Temple,
The Devi has to sacrifice
To get relief from the curse.
From that day, she starved and prayed to be free
She moved nowhere, the witnesses were the trees
That was the thousand year Temple history.
The bereft shadow learnt
That night, two souls were burnt.
The beautiful morning sings
The tourist opened eyes
He saw the clean skies
That was a dream
On the ground, he was lying
Smiling and thinking
The Nightmare that was,
Now he loves his life again.
He moved body and sat
Said hello to shadow and the Hat
But he felt his left leg numb.
As soon as he saw,
He surprised with open jaw,
Three wrapping fastens on leg,
Bloody ankle,
And a Woman, a very beautiful, lying beside.
She was numb, dumb, blue and dead last night.
Full of blood in her mouth,
Is she the Devi?
Who else she could be?
To cure the tourist, she used the old treatment,
She drank his body venom
She sacrificed herself from the curse
To win the freedom,
May be this is the reason,
If it is not, then why she drank poison?
How she came? Why she helped? Actually what happened?
Did she try to say something at her end?
No answer now, only the tears,
She should be honored,
If she were cursed or not cursed.
This no name Temple can say
God sent this woman with no delay.
Is this a folk Snake Charmer? or Goddess?
Or Who was she?
But the tourist named her,
With tears of honor
She is the Devi
Of 21st Century.
(2013)
God knows, in a sudden how and why some volunteers come and help people or they can die with smile; they are not your relative or friends, may be they are God friends, who knows; for them this world is very beautiful, very new. Salute to them.
