The Temple At The Streets End Poem by KASINIVENTHAN MUTHURAMALINGAM

Walking through a narrow lane in the temple City Madurai,
I found a small temple with an idol of a lonely goddess,
A vagabond traveler in me urged to know the story why the goddess
stands there,
With varying queries and nagging curiosity I travelled many decades behind,
There appeared a beautiful woman with dazzling brilliance looking down the street from her balcony,
She was a Devadasi by birth a great dancer and a musician,

Her Charm brought her fame and mighty and powerful waited at her door steps,

Her house was filled with the fragrance of Jasmine and smoke of Benzoin,

Her treasury was filled with rarest stones and pearls

As years passed by, the fabled city she loved to live underwent

the misfortune of famine and hunger,

There was agony in every household, masses perished in hundreds,

our Lady struck by deep sorrow and overwhelmed with un paralleled

compassion,

She started feeding the hunger and sick, Her lands were mortgaged, jewels were sold and finally her palace drifted away from her,

The eyes of the poor were filled with sense of gratitude, hands folded towards the direction of her dwelling place,
She became fragile and sick a street mongrel and poverty were her only companions,
Lying over an old broken cart she smiled at the distant stars in the sky as she realized her last day
Had come.
Lakhs of people thronged her final journey to be united with fire in the river banks.
Every day She touches the children of Madurai through a gentle breeze and breaks in to peal of laughter when the temple bells cling