Poem for Asifa by Ananya S Guha

Asifa, my love

burns burns

but they who burnt

and mauled you

their hearts have turned

rock like into sediments

of dirt, the goddess in

the temple must have

shivered in terror

O Goddess will you forgive?

don’t you remember when

you appeared from Kailash

during autumn rains, me as

a child watched you with your

dancing maidens, O Parvati

O Siva, where is Asifa now

in which forest of despair, death

and agony? What oblations

will greet you, me, her

where will all the children go?

shrieking in terror?

eight, nine, ten, twelve year olds

Asifa my dear beloved sweet little

girl of my country, they have desecrated

all the temples, churches, mosques and synagogues

in your little little world of horses, forests and peripatetic

travels. You can’t grant them any peace

Nor can I

Only the angry God with his trident can.