Mantras From Memory Poem by Uma nair

They came in throngs for what was left
A choir of ashes and songs and shells
Dripping sweat.Holy in strength

Like many others a mob in multitudes
Chanting only so that Shiva'sname could
String the notes on my lips in sound

My faith knitted to the tunes stitched
My world together.Till it silenced
All the trust you put in me flittering
And faltering.In a trance I recited
the mantras from memory
Swept clean through mymind in melancholy

The lines dimmed into dense facesas dusk
Bathed the birds in the sunset of their own song.