By Amrita Valan

In Conjunctio Oppositorum

The promise, of
Ardhnarishwara
Pledge of Purush,
Evolutionary elegance
Perfect synchronicity
Yin-Yang, Dark-Light
Fire-Water, Hard-Soft,
Eros and Thanatos
Destruction and creation
Germs of entropy,
Seeded in nascence.
Fusion of promise
In true mystical union,
Holistic leap of faith
Over spiritual oceans.
Ananthnaga devouring
Sheshnaga’s tail.
Alpha to omega
Wedded congruence.
Parsing syncretism
Richest essences.
Wondrous his guile,
In guise of Purusha
Nari embraced in,
Sweet knit closure.
True man always
Ardhanarishwar
Eternal empath
Binder of genders.
Binary to fluid
Freedom in concord
Vital dust of Adam
Hewing Eve from the rib.
Reverse polarities,
Osmosis inviolate
No border, no dissension
A shared expansion.
The Lord preserves dualities,
In Conjunctio Oppositorum.

****

Title taken from Latin, meaning roughly Unity in Opposition or Duality.
Ardhnarishwara : Half Man Half Woman, a gender fluid or binary gender divine deity
Purush: The Male Principle
Ananthnaga: The eternal serpent in Hindu mythology
Sheshnaga: The serpentine demigod and primordial creative aspect, on whom Lord Vishnu rests in the eternal lifegiving ocean 

On a Starry Night

One brilliant star outshines the rest
Pitch black sky in silver dressed
The lofty canopy up above
Van Gogh’s canvas in loneliness,
Makes me fall in love. With space,
With objects, that outlast brief mortal time
Watchtowers of mythic grace,
Ancient light, from ageless climes.

Five Things

My rocks and pebbles picked up with joy
Address so many milestones, not mere toys
The first time was when I, (unaware), was with child,
Trekking through a distant forest wild
The palm sized stone suns in my veranda today,
My son laughs at me for this treasure, I say,
“Son it reminds me of such a lovely time, when you cocooned inside
I didn’t know it then, that you were mine.

The next item in my treasure chest
Of odds and ends, heavy albums of photographs.
Mostly of my late mommy,
Thank you dear Ma, for your smiling face
I hold you in my two hands now, with
So much longing, that I’m in a daze
Happy memories, sad ones, all blessed with grace.

The third item in my time capsule, should an untold grandkid see
Is an infant Jesus miniature, flimsy plastic thing, but of beatific face
I bought it at a village church waiting for midnight mass.
It’s been my talisman ever since.
Now he sleeps under, of all things, my Mac at my workstation.

I have kept many more trinkets
That feel like lucky charms
Wizard signs to ward off harm,
But they come and go,
Get lost in travel
Perhaps new fates to unravel.

Yet, I must not stop at three
There are still small treasures to see.
My class 10 diary still makes me laugh
In it I scrawled that I’m betrothed to LOL…
Tom Cruise!Egads. For past time’s naïveté I blush.

My fifth and final one, here goes
Is an old tan tee shirt, my husband, (then fiance), donned,
Yes when he came calling and wooing,
It was always his favourite one.
It was a gift from a Japanese firm,
His first job at twenty-one.
And now years have passed but
I refuse to throw out the tattered tee,
Though it is see-through now, faded fine
I love it all the more because…
It reminds me once again, of a time of
Happiness mine.

So five little things that I can
Count on just one hand
Recalls countless things from my wonderland.