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Article: Festival Of Lights.
- Article from:
- Poetry
- Article date:
- January 1, 2003
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2003 Modern Poetry Association. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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FESTIVAL OF LIGHTS
Pottery saucers with wicks and butter blink
against the dark, a dark that evaporates
from every threshold. Along the gravel beds
of the braided river, cremation pyres burn on.
High above the city, on gold walls, huge painted eyes
slit open with first light: the Great Stupa
cuffs its nose at the smoke from below.
Eleven men, brothers
perhaps, chant their way toward the river,
bearing a doll bundle wrapped in gauze.
They stack costly firewood into lattice mandala,
lay the tiny body straight, straighten it
again, cover tenderly with straw.
We watch from a distance, foreign women
only just arrived, ...