Issue 2:
Myth
Ahila Sambamoorthy
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Enduring Land
based upon impressions of New Delhi
An ephemeral throbbing sensation
in the heartland of my heritage
From un-belonging
I move to belonging
The temple's gopurams glitter
Shiva Vishnu Muruga Ganesha
displayed in harlequin silken robes
are gesturing me to kneel
A bare-chested priest intones mantras
kindling the golden Agni
an angelus to his rites
In my stately hotel
I lick the platter clean of ambrosia
while on the street below
a man defecates in the undergrowth
The tight gnarled arterial streets
are clotted with gaudy bazaars
boast their stench of bilious manure
a waxen woman seeks the trishaw's shade
her bulk emaciating her
Alzheimer-struck slave
Toiling rustics stagger
with their bane of blighted harvests
Consumptive mothers crawl out of
cramped mud-huts
their withered breasts unbeckoning
to the parched throats of dehydrated infants
The jaundiced naked child
festering with pustules
frolics under the cruel sun
Distempered boars and rabid dogs
ungainly with distended abdomens
partake in the revelry
Leprous syphilitic
cads vagabonds roughnecks delinquents
all bear the angst of destitution
their hearts carved out of gall
These then are the deranged faces
of the land's inglorious Philistines
These then are the heart-wrenching sight
through which my blood flows
~Ahila Sambamoorthy
Ahila teaches literature at the university level. She has travelled extensively throughout the world and is an accomplished pianist. Email.
© 1999 by Ahila Sambamoorthy. All Rights Reserved.