Concrete sins

 

The rains fell relentlessly on her house, 

She ran to take shelter in caves, 

And watched the house made of mud

Dissolve in water, drop by drop

As if it was made of sugar

And the sweet water

Took everything with it, 

every strip of dry cloth she had

And every grain of food

She slumped back into herself, 

Closed her eyes, and prayed

If only I had a house

That no water could get into

That could have a warm fire blazing

No matter what blizzards howl outside

That would stand still

Even in the calm after the storm

You can have that house, 

Said her goddess

But it will destroy

A little bit of the earth

The earth,  it is meant to be 

Renewed every season

What the rains wash away

It would have deposited on river banks

And the mud would have gone back to earth

Grown up in flowers and fruits and trees

And in the place of what you had lost

you would have created anew

But this house that you ask for,

It will not be destroyed 

It will stand there

And stand and stand

The waters that would have 

flowed over it

Will have to flow around it

When you are gone

The house will not be 

Destroyed and rebuilt, 

as it should

But it will exist for 

far longer than a season

And when it finally dies

As all things should

It will not come back to life

As all living beings would

It will exist, in hard and brittle

Concrete bits and pieces 

That nothing can grow out of

That will not go back into the earth

Wherever they go, 

they will take death with them

For renewal every season

Is the ritual of life

And this house of yours 

Will flout that rule

It will be an aberration

On the map of the earth

The earth is large, mother

And I am but a tiny one, a nothing

You can grant me as much earth

As one point of a pin

So that I can be safe

In one lifetime

What is one point of a pin, 

To the great world?

And what is one lifetime

In the great flow of time?

Nothing, mother, nothing

And so the house was made

Not by borrowing from the earth 

And the river and the Forests

Mud and stones and wood and water

That would have gone back into them

But by hacking and plundering 

And accumulating and stealing

Sand and marble and other things

That would never go back

Where they came from

That would never 

grow anything ever again

That would, even when destroyed

Continue to hinder and obstruct

The rains and the winds and 

Seeds and little saplings

Every item a plunder

Every step a crime 

A sin against the mother earth

And yes she was happy

To be safe for a lifetime

It is just as big as a pin point to you, 

Mother earth, 

She said

And the pin point is nothing,

Nothing, 

In someone as great

And munificent as you

Can you not give your daughter 

A little point of a pin?

Yes daughter, 

But don’t you see?

I have so many daughters…

Cried mother earth

But she shut the doors of her house

And went inside to warm up

By the blazing fire

***

And she continued to ask 

From her goddess

And from mother earth

Which were maybe one and the same

Things that would 

Make her safe for a lifetime

And leave a legacy

Of death and destruction

***

Will you fill up every inch of me, child?

The mother asked with tears in her eyes

Will you give me no space to breathe at all?

Will you not think for a moment

Of the sin against your mother?

Her daughter’s jaw was set

And her eyes were fiery

Plenty for some and poverty for others, 

Isn’t that a greater sin, mother?

Will you deny me what 

You gave to your other daughters?