The Temple
A lone bystander by a corner store
observing morning mourners haul great loads
to offices, their eight-hour, loathed abodes.
Those usual faces from the day before.
It meekly waits, inviting amblers in
to have an honest, though succinct, discourse
with The Advisor, who can quell the force
of peace-eroding rivers born within.
Even a vagrant's faded handkerchief
spread on the footpath halts some rapid feet,
but these wide-open, holy doors just greet
the sunbeams, wind, its emptiness, and grief.
Today, a doddering, cane-supported pair
expelled the sorrow of its sacred hall
by offering Jasmine flowers and lighting small
oil lamps. The bells' peals drifting through the air
turned eyes towards this temple's newborn smile.
Devotion births devotion; hence, a few
fleet-footed joined this couple's worship too,
and everything was tranquil for a while.
Shamik Banerjee is a poet from Assam, India, where he resides with his parents. His poems have been published by Sparks of Calliope, The Hypertexts, Snakeskin, Ink Sweat & Tears, Autumn Sky Daily, Ekstasis, among others. He secured second position in the Southern Shakespeare Company Sonnet Contest, 2024.
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