Sacred Fire Poem by Imthiyaz Khan

Oh Sacred Fire!
What relation
are you to us?
From cradle to bier,
we are indebted!
what should the Creator
must have made you of?

How accidental it was:
we conceive of thy identity!
To help us,
thou have come
upon divine command
like the other elements
without our knowledge!

Light, Heat and Smoke
are your forms
like human feelings:
Compassion, Anger
and Retaliation!

Your light drives one
from ignorance to knowledge
like our compassion
from despair to hope!

Your heat changes shape
like our Anger!

As for Smoke,
it bespeaks thy presence
like Retaliation,
human tendency!

Your dawning is the most sought after
to begin the day with full of hopes
The like of a babe, a couple's life!

You grow harsh
and harsher at noon
like an arrogant youth!

You further proceed
to dusk as we fall
victims of ageing!

Your grace is for all
like that of the other elements!
So, you are immortal!
Ours is limited,
hence we are mortal!

What an enviably
undaunted marital kinship
you establish with Air
like us with opposite sex
to keep alive the Creation!

In your play with it,
we derive living!
Thou art not only
means to an end,
but also an end to yourself!
To cook, to digest,
thou art the means!
To be used like Harathi,
after pooja in temple,
to cast off evil sight,
thou art the end!

Thou art both to show thy
wrath on entire humanity!
The resultant calamity
makes our lives accursed!

Given thy characteristic
in our nature,
am I wrong to
call upon thy magnanimity?

Show thy mercy!
Show us how to keep cool
like you in a match box!
I beseech you to inspire
us to be liekwise! ! !