Week 13 Story: The Holy Mother VS Kali

The Holy Mother VS Kali

Mary, Mother of God,

see how the people flock to you –

sunshine flowing from your marble cheeks

in the bright light of the church.

A lonely sinner kneels before my pedestal,

gazing at my open arms,

the shadows pouring from my cloak,

before he prays against a headstone.

My scales glow from the haunting

of ghosts and phantoms,

the murky glare of specters in the shade,

scabs that have grown into scars.

You are covered in stars,

clutching to your chest

the sweetness of innocence –

an airy perfume in the fall of Judgement.

I keep the thieves of the night close to my heart,

hide them in my breast-pocket,

and console the grieving

as I take the dead into my boney hands.

Gentle Mother, when we pass paths,

your eyes glow with the glitter of the dove,

preening in the castle of Paradise

as I stand at the gate, guiding another fate.

My eyes glower with the shivering dogs,

snarling as I travel in empty courtyards

to the houses of the sick, the poor,

who have forgotten to paint red on their doors.

Soft Virgin, hear their prayers,

children begging

to fill your skirt with their wishes

and lay them before the Father,

read them to your son –

a storybook of humanity.

Mary, Mother of God,

sisters we could be,

but you are a miracle

and I am a tragedy.

My poor boys

just die and bleed,

lonely forever

in their despair,

while you and your angels

just dance and sing

as if forever

tasting victory.

Author's Note: This poem is written in the point-of-view of Kali but through a western Christian filter.  I read Sister Nivedita 's Kali the Mother, the chapter called Concerning Symbols.  It was just interesting how Sister Nivedita compared Kali and the Virgin Mother, Mary, and I wanted to represent that in a story.  A poem really seemed the best way for me to do that, so that is why I wrote this one.  It is Kali speaking to Mary, discussing how the western world views her within the context of the religious world.