SMITHA SEHGAL, INDIA (Peace Poem)

Smitha Sehgal

In the name of peace

Last night 

I attended God’s funeral.

God was washed 

and clothed in blue,

adorned in garlands 

woven from blood roses. 

I had come from far away.

Maggots gnawed on the ripe wounds 

of  God, 

discussing faith. I retched.

God’s face was younger 

than what I had imagined 

in my prayers. 

Rummaging through God’s shelf of books 

I discovered an old bound volume-

Lal Ded.

God may have read poetry. 

Folded away in a corner 

lay a Memorandum of Peace.

Here I was the First Party

and

God made no representations 

or warranties as the Second Party. 

The indemnity clause required me 

to suffer the sins of my previous lives.

Of burning down villages, 

of rivers bloodied, of slaughtered

children,

of muffled and violated women.

It read that a flower plucked 

could incite a war. 

Echo failings of Sun. 

The thickening syrup of arsenic fever 

danced on my tongue.

Profile:

Smitha Sehgal is a legal professional and a bilingual poet who writes in English and Malayalam. Her poems have been featured in contemporary literary publications such as Ink Sweat & Tears, Tiger Moth Review, Almost Island, Gone Lawn Journal, The Indianapolis Review and elsewhere. Her collection of poems ‘How Women Become Poems’ has been released recently by Red River.

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Setu, September 2023 :: Peace Poem