Usha Kishore

Firewalkers

Barefooted, I dance on smouldering
embers to the beat of sonorous drums

with that chaste woman buried in the
crystal chalice of my mind.

I walk with her as she steps into the
cruel world from a womb of fire.

I walk with her around the fire, five times,
I firewalk with her from husband to husband.

I firewalk with her as each ember burns the
lecherous looks showered on her, time and again.

I firewalk again as each vermillion flower glows,
echoing her cries at a slighted womanhood .

Each foot burning and seething – for the thigh
that offered to take her, the hand that disrobed her.

Each burning log, burning the lust of all
who desired her. I firewalk, reborn as her.

I firewalk again, waiting for an armful of dark
blood to anoint my defiled, unravelled hair.

I firewalk again around the funeral pyres of
five comely sons, burned alive in their tents.

I firewalk again, upholding the flag of spirited
womanhood,  till the end of time.

 

(Firewalking is an Indian ritual, practised by many religions.  Described in the poem is the South Indian tradition of firewalking or theemithi in honour of Draupadi, the heroine of the Indian epic Mahabharata).