THE STONE AND
THE STREAM
S. Samal
Man has
an inclination for God,
the glory that haunts
and shimmers
in his psyche
and sub-conscious
even the hardest criminal
crumbles and remembers Lord
in the dark lone hour
Man in church
temple and mosque
worships, offers, prays, bows
in silence
chants psalms and hymns
perhaps to seek
a moment of
calm and peace
in a world
and time of turbulence
but it is difficult
to devise the divine
in a mortal frame
or mould
for to become a god
is to become a stone
with all restraint
and austerity
purged and sterilised
of passion and urge
but the stone is a very
painful condition
the near posture of a statue
or hermit in trance.
He also wishes
to rush and flow
with flesh and blood
hasten and glide
as a stream or trickle
with joy and murmer
but the trickle dies soon
in the burning desert
of sin and depletion
thus the stone and stream
are the two extremes
man poised and paralysed
between the two riddles
and regrets
dilemmas and deliriums.