I Became In Your Love

I became in your love
a broken leaf,
torn from the tree,
buffeted in terror
by winds unknown 
and then 
in lightness of surrender,
rising higher and higher

I became in your love
a drop of rain,
bereft from clouds,
falling through the sky
in relentless lure
and then
becoming one
with earth's desire

I became in your love
a lamp set alight,
consumed
little by little,
in fierceness of longing
and then
gloriously burning
setting darkness on fire

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Seeta

at the edge of the forest, she stands

where Lakshman's chariot has just left her,

her eyes speaking of  pain 

of a woman betrayed,

she, the one born of earth

beloved princess of Janak's kingdom

married to that epitome of virtue,

the Maryada Purushottam,

the king who could do no wrong,

she the one, who had loved him enough

to trade her palace for a jungle hut,

who had not forgotten him for a moment

in the captivity of the demon, Ravan,

I see her as she stands there

in her desolate destitution,

stripped of all but the life

she carries in her womb,

heirs to the man who abandoned her

for the sin of another man's lust,

I know then, no matter 

how many centuries have gone by

every woman born on the soil of this country

is cursed to carry

 the agony of this unhealed wound

 in her heart, forever

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