WOMAN by Shivana Sharma

Woman

You want me to shrink to ease your pain
To bow my head in shame?
Because your shame is buried deep beneath your ancestral ash
Let Ganga take your piety
and wash it well.
I will stride as my mother does
and speak my words
In strange tongues.
I have held my belly and bawled
When karmic leela bludgeoned
The fragile heart within me.
My arrhythmic soul
Can only dream
but Faith is my lineage.
Rubescent rivers flow from my story
and I fly proudly my red jandhi.
You may cremate your shame
Let your Maya choke it, smother it, hide it
for now.
My weighted flight ponders
your casket of belief
But the sun is in my eye
And my bindi whispers
Fly.

* * *

A Jandhi is the flag flown from a bamboo rod to signify the victorious completion of a holy ceremony or puja.

Lila (Hinduism) or Leela can be loosely translated as the "divine play.

Maya is the Hindi word for illusion.

A Bindi is a decorative mark worn in the middle of the forehead by Indian women, especially Hindus.

Shivana Sharma. When people no longer see you, then you have to be heard. The best thing about me is my age and 58 is the least number of reasons I celebrate myself and my breath. As a recent empty nester and grandmother, the pandemic world has directed me further inward. If my daughters find wisdom in my words either today or tomorrow, then I am content, but contentment will never be where I rest my head, when there is exhilaration to be had.

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