Poem: Kalighat (Temple In Calcutta)

Kalighat (Temple in Calcutta)

So long, only from afar,

I have seen this goddess Mother.

Whores and holy men,

millionaires and maid servants,

the countryman and the foreigner â€“ me

all seek her.

Any other eye

may only view

black charcoal stone adorned with pretty cloth

surrounded by manic masses, crying for healing.

But she embodies purpose, beauty, all of life to me

and while these masses cry we also find

looking in her direction

makes us whole again.

Amidst a religious pandemonium,

my own mother takes my hand:

after long wait

I, a tarnished soul,

I have traveled halfway across the world

to come face to face with

the humanity left in myself.