Sunil P.
Narayan
Pānchālī
Pulled into my husbands’ court by my uncombed
hair
Thrown onto the floor where
hundreds of feet touch their thick, red silk
The flowing carpet rises and
falls like the mist of my garden
I know you are immovable in your
rage Shákuni
Your
ego knows no limits, it is like a snake stalking a
mouse
Quietly without remorse in its
meager heart
All
eyes watch me cry in anguish as you pull my sari
To end of this room it flows like
the Gaṅgā
Shining with its thin, gold-laden
fabric
And crippled by your greedy
fingers
Dignified beauty you tossed with your
dice
Human emotions you sacrificed
with your heart
Bring your eyes to mine to see
one word: regret
Ha! You are the nectar’s enemy:
regret!
If
you took me then Kṛṣṇa will smite you right now!
His chakra a knife for your
spineless body
All
my fears that followed me at night with my friends
Nibbling on their black pearls
while I watched roses rise
They are you…a shadow that rapes
the moon
I cannot give you my body for it
belongs to Keśava!
My
life will one day be returned to his home
To live as a cowherd while
churning milk for his hungry lips
The boyish smile and curly hair
that barely touches his shoulders
His eyes so wide yet shaped like
the waning moon
Little specks in the corner of both eyes are
galaxies unknown to us
So far away other people exist
for whom Kṛṣṇa is their king
If I
am his then he is my king too
Shákuni, you are the drunken ego,
a corrupted seed for humanity!
My body is a vase holding the
virtues of Sūrya
He touched my spirit to give me a
bite of his own
Disrobing me in front of my husbands and all
the Āryas of their kingdom
is a sacrilege!
I cry to you to stop this great
injustice!
Can’t you see I have sunken into
a sea of distress!?
No, you are busy drowning my
voice with your wicked laughter
Brahmā gave you a boon that
protects your life from any physical or divine harm
Yet, has he no shame when seeing
this monstrous deed?
Ma!
You are Sarvāsuravināśā, come to my rescue!
Show your terrifying face to this
savage
Make him cower under your
crippling stare, ma!
Turn his limbs into brittle
sticks so he will stop treating my honor like a
toy
Yearning
of The Night
I am
the Mistress of the everlasting Night!
You, Sūrya, shall bow down to my
black feet!
If your eyes wander to side of
this grassy pathway…
If your lips kiss anything other
than my smoke-covered skin…
Know
my heart will not tolerate such laziness!
A noose to pull your light into
the copper jar
It makes me wonder if those poor
souls are worthy of your touch
You whore! To follow someone
other than my great beauty is a sin!
Is
my body not slim enough for your liking?
Adorned with the finest gemstones
of our Father’s heavenly paradise
Picked by fortunate servants who
worship my voice and reason
They pray for a kiss from my lips
yet you pray for release from the clutches of my
shadow
If
the sunlight is burned like the skin of a baby’s flesh from
being touched by a candle
It is no reason to whine like a
child
Whimpers and little tears are
reserved for the rain
But your sunlight…such a glorious
entity you are!
I
followed you after the birth of this universe
Our Mother created us for her
amusement
An inner joy filled her mind to
cause a smile
From that came her immortal
children, beings of raw light
We
were too hot to touch, so you became the sun and I became the
empty hole in your nightmares
My enemy from birth, the one who
tried to squash me like a cockroach!
I pulled you by the arms into my
embrace
The wind felt it and whispered to
us to merge into one creature
Sūrya, you sit down, waiting for me to show
you what true godhood is
The immeasurable weight of my
lust holds you to the purple sea of stars
I don’t moan but listen to your
own…the sound is the bells of our mother’s temple
It is sweet yet meager if
compared to my hunger when dawn joins me
Do
not feel inferior my love, even the thunder of the sky is small
to my ears
Can you see why I must subjugate
your tangible body?
Fire cannot be touched unless
someone wants to become a monster
But I can feel it in my hands and
yearn for your enticing kisses
You
run away if I look at you for a second
Maybe I engulfed your enormous
body too fast
The next universe already has a
sun, don’t make matters worse!
If you leave then my heart break
into pieces and fall to Bhūmī-Devī’s
mountains
Sunil P.
Narayan is an Indian American poet living in Beaverton, Oregon.
Sunil's work has been a long, enriching journey that absorbed
the world's
eccentricities to create a
masterpiece of color, surrealism and human emotion. The past
two years witnessed a climatic moment in which his writing
churned out emotionally- inducing poems. It is his intent to
help people access feelings they rarely get to
experience.
|