Shattered Altar Poem by ashok jadhav

I knelt where light once promised comfort,
hands pressed to stone, eyes closed in trust.
But suffering came like a tide unbidden,
and the words I held for solace
were swallowed by silence.
I asked why—again and again—
why pain visits the innocent,
why hearts are broken and prayers unheard,
why mercy seems a stranger
and the world bows only to sorrow.
Faith falters like a candle guttering
against winds too cruel to name,
and I wonder if the God I sought
is lost, or if I have only learned
to question what I once held sacred.
Yet even amid doubt, the altar stands,
its shadow long and patient,
and I remain, trembling and unresolved,
learning that some devotion
is not certainty,
but the courage to keep asking
when the world offers no reply.