Amanita Sen, INDIA

Exclusive: Best of Women Poetry: Edited by Padmaja Iyengar-Paddy

Amanita Sen

KUMARI PUJA *

Because I was their little deity

each Ashtami day, every year,

the couple living next door

washed my feet,

did an arati,

offered me flowers,

halwa and some money.

All this went on

till I bled to womanhood,

and then the ritual stopped.

It was like foretelling what

it would be like for many,

to be a throbbing woman;

real,

the fallen Goddess,

paying the price with

spilled blood.

*Kumari puja – the ritual where young girls are worshipped as Goddess

Ashtami- an auspicious day for worshipping – 8^th day of the Hindu Calendar

Arati – a ritual to offer prayers to Hindu Gods

halwa - a kind of sweet

Amanita Sen is the author of 2 volumes of poetry-Candle in my dream and What I don’t tell you. Her poems have been published in numerous journals. She is a mental health professional, living in Kolkata, India.

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Best of Women Poetry -2020 :: Setu, March 2020