Slaying Demons

When your faith reveres
a pagoda, I become Buddha, and
I am ready to leave the palace,

Talking to my ancestor
I open the book of flames, when a ghost
lady burns herself alive to pay homage.

If you are truthful, I will
place commas again and again
before making you a goddess.

The poet seems to hint at ‘Sati’, an earlier practice in which woman used to sit on the pyre of her husband and immolated herself. Subsequently people recognized her as a goddess.

Rajendra Singh Baisthakur , Nellore, AP, 524003