A Forest Shrine
‘Danger 11000 Volts’, says the little plaque
Attached to the electric pole. Round the plaque
Someone has wound a length of barbed wire
And three flags, one vertical and two crossed,
Have been struck into the wire around the pole.
The three flags are gatekeepers of the shrine
Which is twenty yards behind them. Twenty yards
Into the forest there is a rock, two rocks
Actually, which a horizontal crack zigzagging across
The rock face and a bunyan tree, poised
Over the rock like another sentinel.
The adventitious roots have found purchase
On the stone, and entre the cracks and crevices
On the rock shelf to hold the tree upright.
A turbaned face, with moustaches is daubed
In vermilion on the rock face, and artificial
Eyes like cowries have been stuck into the rock
Where eyes should be. The face is the artist’s vision
Of some forest God and roundabout on the rock
Are written various holy names in Devnagari.
I can read ‘Ma’ and ‘Om’ and ‘Bara Mahadeo’
Packets of agarbattis lie around along with
Coconut shell, testifying to the faith
Of some dweller in the jungle. Below the rock
On the ground is another stone placed against the rock
The upright stone is wrapped up in some cloth.
It could be a primitive lingam. Tridents,
Made out of cycle tubes, stand around. It is not easy
To bend a cycle tube into a trident, but the job
Has been done, though roughly. Faith
May not move mountains, but it can
Certainly shape a recalcitrant cycle tube
Into an emblem of faith.
