Accidental Worship

Long drawn shadows are also children of the sun.
Cast far away on a landscape faintly warm
like the inheritance of emotions in our being.

Till, one day—we sense a ‘dukkha’ in us
in an elemental form
that defies all boundaries and origin.

One day, we discover a tenderness
that flows through our limbs and through our eyes
with a subtle tremble of disbelief.

That we are so close to our devotion,
that the sun also rises from within
and immeasurable beauty imbues us with blessing

and it spreads through us
like a song of devotion and lights a lamp of joy
in accidental worship.

Madhu Kailas is the pen name of Kingshuk Basu. He is a native of Kolkata, India and has lived in various places in India and USA. He is the author of two poetry selections, ‘The Birds Fly in Silence’, 2014 by Writer’s Workshop Kolkata and ‘The Boatman of Murshidabad’, 2021 by Aleph Book Company. He has been published in journals like Indian Literature, The Amistad, Acumen, Slippery Elm, The Gateway Review, Plainsongs Poetry Magazine, The Bosphorus Book Review, The Marathon Literary Review, Dragon Poet Review, New Mexico Review, Sutterville Review, The Punch Magazine, Converse – an anthology of 75 years of Indian poetry in English, The Literary Voyage, and Langlit. He lives with his wife and children in Mumbai.