before the word
there’s a red moon in a black sky tonight
and my city lies beneath this bloody eye
like an open wound. something primeval
is at work, the century thrown
back a thousand years, everything is
believable and anything can happen.
Maybe on a night like this our ancestors
went to bed as men and rose as tigers,
words would summon prey to a hungry
traveller in a forest, a mantra would bring
rain, wind or stop a lesion bleeding.
This was before the word of god.
Perhaps on a night like this, when a dragon
cloud winds itself around the moon,
the dance of the thlen begins, and the
nongshohnoh brings out his crude weaponry.
where is the sound of the duitara, faint
and trembling upon the breeze, to warn
the unwary? it has been silenced
by the choir. On a night like this, though,
I think I hear it, penetrating darkened
windows, slithering over old waterfalls,
laying down propitiatory verses to a
watchful, ancient god.
No. 37*
It was teeming at Sé,
more so at the Basilica.
hawkers held out bouquets
of white candles.
“To burn inside.”
I didn’t think Francis,
in his 14th-century robes,
would appreciate that.
Instead, I bought marigolds
to lay near
the dimpled cherubs
holding up his casket
in quizzical silence.
It was hot in Old Goa.
Much too warm for this
time of year. Must be
the candles.
I walk toward the
bus stop, leaving behind
the fake rosaries and
religious artifacts.
In the midst of all this—
a man selling bubbles.
“No burst, madam,” he
says, poking one with a
finger. Now, there’s
the miracle, I thought,
that everyone
has come to witness.
* in the Bible, Jesus is presumed to have performed 36 miracles
Janice is a freelance writer now based in her hometown Shillong, Meghalaya after years of being away in Delhi and elsewhere. Her writing is informed by a number of things—her mixed Portuguese, Khasi and British ancestry, Shillong and its people, literature, travel, everyday things. Her writings have been published in Ultraviolet, Soundzine, Art India, the smokingpoet, tongues of the ocean, Timeout Delhi magazine, The Caravan: A Journal of Arts & Culture, An Indian Journey, 6E and Biblio: A Review of Books among others.
there’s a red moon in a black sky tonight
and my city lies beneath this bloody eye
like an open wound. something primeval
is at work, the century thrown
back a thousand years, everything is
believable and anything can happen.
Maybe on a night like this our ancestors
went to bed as men and rose as tigers,
words would summon prey to a hungry
traveller in a forest, a mantra would bring
rain, wind or stop a lesion bleeding.
This was before the word of god.
Perhaps on a night like this, when a dragon
cloud winds itself around the moon,
the dance of the thlen begins, and the
nongshohnoh brings out his crude weaponry.
where is the sound of the duitara, faint
and trembling upon the breeze, to warn
the unwary? it has been silenced
by the choir. On a night like this, though,
I think I hear it, penetrating darkened
windows, slithering over old waterfalls,
laying down propitiatory verses to a
watchful, ancient god.
No. 37*
It was teeming at Sé,
more so at the Basilica.
hawkers held out bouquets
of white candles.
“To burn inside.”
I didn’t think Francis,
in his 14th-century robes,
would appreciate that.
Instead, I bought marigolds
to lay near
the dimpled cherubs
holding up his casket
in quizzical silence.
It was hot in Old Goa.
Much too warm for this
time of year. Must be
the candles.
I walk toward the
bus stop, leaving behind
the fake rosaries and
religious artifacts.
In the midst of all this—
a man selling bubbles.
“No burst, madam,” he
says, poking one with a
finger. Now, there’s
the miracle, I thought,
that everyone
has come to witness.
* in the Bible, Jesus is presumed to have performed 36 miracles
Janice is a freelance writer now based in her hometown Shillong, Meghalaya after years of being away in Delhi and elsewhere. Her writing is informed by a number of things—her mixed Portuguese, Khasi and British ancestry, Shillong and its people, literature, travel, everyday things. Her writings have been published in Ultraviolet, Soundzine, Art India, the smokingpoet, tongues of the ocean, Timeout Delhi magazine, The Caravan: A Journal of Arts & Culture, An Indian Journey, 6E and Biblio: A Review of Books among others.
