Re-creation

Lord, I have been banished
and so has been my whole race
forcibly torn away from you
and thrown into the wilderness of exile.
Like nomads we struggle for life
through wastelands and barren fields
and face the battering rain,
the pounding hail,
the howling, blinding dust storms,
the bone-chilling wintry nights,
the sweltering, stenching, drenching summer,
in snake pits and scorpion dens,
stalked by baying hounds,
under the prying gaze of vultures,
as spiders, ants and mosquitoes
join the death dance.

What sustains us is our faith
and your mighty presence within,
replenished by the legacy
that we carried with us-
your icons, idols, images-
and our endeavours to re-create
our lost paradise,
by raising replicas of the abodes
of your manifold avatars-
the temples of Zeystha and Zala,
Raginya and Sharika,
Lalla and Ropa-
and the all pervading Lord Shiva.