Poetry at Sangam

SangamHouse

 










If There were a Goddess of Peace by Keki N. Daruwalla

If there were a practicing goddess of peace
she would have celebrated
the judgement of the Five.
The trouble is, goddesses of peace
are hard to find; gods
of war are a-plenty.
Is mythology also arraigned
against genuine peace
(as against the spurious one)
and votes for dome batterers?
This leads to another question:
Does humanity deserve peace?
(Must ask Derrida or Foucault,
though I haven’t read the buggers.)

Peace is not a scribble of words
dictated to a keypad in a musty room;
it is a cloud in summer
that keeps you from the sun.

The goddess of peace,
had there been one,
would have been disturbed
at the sight of a temple coming up
on the carcass of a mosque.

 

 

 

Keki N. Daruwalla