Mascara
The last thing she does
before she gets ready to die
once more, of violation,
she applies the mascara.
Always,
in that last and solemn moment
the call-girl hesitates.
With eye-catching eyes
she stops to shudder.
Maybe, the dyed eyes
mourn her body’s sins.
Mascara. . .
it serves to tell her
that long buried
hazy dreams
of a virgin soul
have dark outlines.
Silently she cries.
Her tears are black.
Like her.
Somewhere
Long Ago
in an
untraceable
mangled
matrilineal
fa mily tree
of temple prostitutes,
her solace was sought.
It has happened for centuries. . .
Empty consolations soothe
violated bodies.
Sex clings to her devadasi skin,
assumed superficialities don’t wear off,
Deliverance doesn’t arrive.
Unknown Legacies of
Love made to Gods
haven’t been ceremoniously accounted
as karma.
But still she prays.
Her prayer words
desperately provoke Answers.
Fighting her case,
Providence lost his pride.
Her helplessness doesn’t
Seduce the Gods.
And they too
never learn
the Depth of her Dreams.
She believes—
Cosmetics were
once. . .
War paints.
She awaits their resurrection.
When she dons the mascara
The Heavens have heard her whisper,
Kali, you wear this too. . .
(First published in Indian Horizons)
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