Gods in the hills by Jagannath Rao Adukuri

There waved tiny flags on vast unutterable silences
Of the mountains, in rain and fog and vague figures
That hung heavily in clothed heads, in monkey’s glory
Whose eyes went over silky layers of  September sky,
Suffused with thin mists of confusion and intellect.

There sat a monkey god, himself a victim of confusion
In  frosty silence, abetted by a stony absence of clarity.
Should I or should I not, kill demons and/or restore life
To a god’s swooning brother, by a medicinal mountain
Or smear myself in ocher, my eyes closed in a prayer
As god- wife’s pearls turn rosary for prayer counting.

The flags fluttered in confusion on our many desires
Cancelling each other, the mountains rising over them.
The gods turned to quiet prayers as frosts fizzled down
Now and then, to a splendid sun emerging from pines.

Adukuri Jagannath Rao writes on Indian Review.