The music that Nirmala is playing today goes

By two names: The One Who Finds Lost Things

And The One Through Whom Everything Is Lost.

Tigers go on eating people in the Forest

Of Existence. The Gods agree to this. Saints

Admire whiskers that have been dipped in blood.

Women with their newly washed hair, the souls

Born again and again into sleek, fresh bodies,

Boards leaning against a barn…what does it all mean?

Men think ahead, and are mainly providential.

They laid out Egypt. But I like women so much.

They say: “Let the lambs come and be killed.”

And women suffer the most. Between every child born,

So many rugs are woven and taken apart. The water

Of a hundred bowls is poured out on the ground.

The hungry tigers follow the disappearing dogs

Into the woods of life. Women understand this,

For this is a world in which everything is lost.