NAPOWRIMO. 2021

Prompt-1 A PLACE ON MY BODY 

Ampat Koshy 

Thousands of temples millions of worshippers

The deity in a land where most body parts are unmentionable

Yet befitting its ageless culture and wisdom and divine descent

The deity is the graceful smooth erect ‘lingam’

Symbol of the tree of life that grows tall and stout

And flowering deflowering bursts the seed when the earth opens its womb

New life bursts forth the tree being the germinater 

Also the sustainer and provider 

Worshipped over centuries as the primordial phallum 

The sculptor and architect design man’s imagination 

The earth creates its own ‘linga’ of snow as though on divine instruction 

On the full moon night of the month of ‘Shravana’

Millions queue up in thousands of temples to offer flowers

To Him who gives us all, to sprinkle flowers on his ‘lingam’

Were it be so that I could be one of the snakes coiled around the neck of the god 

Upon whose ‘linga’ millions of women 

And men bow in devotion 

©️Satbir Chadha-1-04-2021