The Modern Puja
By Ankita Jaikumar
Identifies with the nation of Pakistan
The feeling
(we forget
for a life
how much
we never lived)
oceans across, worn nastaliq engulfed in flame
a puja lessened by its elements
untraditional
(plastic kameez
what would it be like
to see a centuries old practice
–a soft erosion of what we
watered down?
handed through
generations like worn jewelry,
used to be)
the jhumkas fallen off
long ago. because soft dance
(as we leave an empty song
on a temple floor lives on in the written word
not in sight. verses rushed and grating,
as if modernity will snatch the words out
of your mouth and then your mind.
the altar temporary
built on
human structure rather than godly divinity.
that yearns for everything we lost)
Ankita Jaikumar is a teenage poet from the Georgia area. She’s Pakistani Hindu, and finds that simply by being from a Muslim majority country and practicing a minority religion questions her validity of how MENA/SWANA she really is. When she’s not writing, she’s diving deep into Wikipedia rabbit holes, playing flute, or reading.