Gods wait inside a museum
In California;
Shiva entranced in a dance,
Is unseen by
The Buddha – he meditates
Undistracted,
Trees that help him breathe
Are saints too,
They gift away their wisdom
Like trees do –
In silence, rustling the sound
Of endurance.
Do gods secured in museums
Remember us?
Or they no longer care for us,
We who forgot
The sermons below the tree?
They wait for us
In museums – a safer option,
Than returning to
A world uncured by holiness.
Featured Image Courtesy Ananya Vajpeyi.
Manash Firaq Bhattacharjee is a poet and a faculty member at School of Culture and Creative Expressions, Ambedkar University, New Delhi. His poems have appeared in The London Magazine, New Welsh Review, Rattle and other journals. Ghalib’s Tomb and Other Poems (2013), published by The London Magazine, is a poetry collection to his credit.
