Ganesh Pooja

Jai Ganesh, jai Ganesh, jai Ganesh deva

In her mind at least, the music anticipates, and so

She clicks her tongue to the roof of her mouth,

Intoning, imitating, the vivacious beats of the tabla

The wavelengths of her mind humming along to the palpitations

Within the temple doors

And just as Kashibai did, she opens the door

Eyes ostentatious, plumes of saffron dancing in

Smoky air; her breath is deep, inhaling

The granular fragrance of the temple

As sticks of agarbatti burn in their clay pots

She watches the capricious child, a lone dreamer

Amidst the throngs, waddle and wade across fields of rangoli

As his mother chases after him, curds-soaked hands gleefully

Twirling around him, unfurling like the petals of an budding lotus

Delighting the wandering eye

As the temple bells chime, as the child is scooped up by his mother with a finality,

And now looks around bewildered and lost, she knows it’s time, feels it in her heart--

The swell of one’s soul and spirit as the shenai’s trumpets blows;

Heaven and earth and beyond, united across the skies and stars...

The silken curtains shrouding Ganesh’s clay temple, unmasked

Jai Ganesh, jai Ganesh, jai Ganesh deva

oh! envisage-- pots of rosewater, milk, cream poured over divine clay

Meandering liquids intertwined with the crescent moon

Dovish and mechanical, practiced and preached

Gold and silk and decades of blooms

Garlands of tulsi and chrysanthemum