Each year
Our myth
Comes alive
From the pages of Purana
The demoness*
Holika steps out
Taking Prahlad
On her lap
To sit on the pyre
The flame touches the sky
Prahlad lives while Holika dies
The intent is to kill
The child devotee Prahlad
Who sees his God Vishnu
In every atom of the universe
It is a blasphemy of course
So the child is sentenced to
death
By his father, a demon
To make the job easy
Prahlad’s aunt Holika
Comes forward
No fire could burn her
But Vishnu wills otherwise
So Prahlad lives while Holika
dies
Each year
The myth
Comes alive
The old mother Earth Herself
Becomes Holika
Spreading Her firewood arms
She becomes Her own pyre
Where She sits perhaps mourns
Having lost Her magical charm
She lets Her children set fire
Her sputter bursts into a painful
flame
That reaches the infinite sky
We utterly do not know
Who will live and who will die
Each year
The myth
Comes alive
*had to use this un-English(!) word for a female demon
