No God Sized Events Poem by umashankar manthravadi

No god-sized events to greet a fateful morning
Just a kite wheeling idly,
High in an already hot sky

No lightning to burn out the pain
No thunder to drown the roar of multitudes
Mud down an ancient mountainside
Burying each other and everyone else

A multitude of shadows,
Walk with you, divide and dissolve
Watch you divide and dissolve

And no rain to kill the shadows in the dust

The earth dries and opens as you watch
Pries open each wound and tuft of grass
There is no thirst; blood dries and cakes behind the eyes

Umashankar, May 9,1998