A Stillbirth

The master’s manly hairs
hovered between her sun and stars.

            Blessed Virgin!
            The Messiah will tread on the earth a second time,
            had rejoiced the maimed and the broken.

The diabolic pseudo-doyen, splayed across M’s faint shadow, veiling
the womb cradled by Muse, watched over by Poesy,
lullabied by the Ancient bards!

The serpentine hiss parked on his tongue,
he vigorously stomped his feet on the pregnant belly.

This time, the Pilate did not waste time searching for the Truth.
Judas was saved.
Peter and the cock did not appear on stage.
The Calvary was spared a cross,
and Joseph did not have to hunt for a vacant tomb.

Salvation called off,
in a single, powerful kick.

Nithya Mariam John is a poet, translator and teacher from Kerala. A few of her works are housed in Kendra Sahitya Akademi’s Indian Literature, Kerala Sahitya Akademi’s Malayalam Literature Survey, Borderless, SETU, International Journal of Fear Studies and Samyuktha Poetry. Poetry Soup, Reflections & Ruminations and Bleats and Roars are short collections of her scribblings. She is a lazy scribbler on Mizhi (nmjs.in) and tries to climb over her unending ignorance by reading.