Udisthanam

Piercings of sense,
Notes lashing time
Ecstatic self hidden
In the ship’s hold

“I” legible
Solely in darkness:
Shot flames,
Anchorage of divinity.

On the South Indian coast
In eighth century heat
Tiruvalla copper plate
Marked the morning hour

Before the sea clamored
And the shadow of the body
Lay twelve feet longer
Than Sita herself,

Littoral burning
With sacred fires – passage
To a kingdom beyond
The peepul trees.

Where are those refugees
Amma did not want me to see,
Gunny sacks and torn saris
Stitched together with cord?

Breath of my breath, bone
Of my bone, dark god
Of the Nilgiris,
Who will grant them passage?