Shiva’s Sonnet

And by dull rhymes our poesy is chained.

To make the mouth obey linguistic law,

The buccal space distorts the deadened jaw,

Whilst lips collapse, receding and ashamed.

Is it the potency of such great theft

That prompts this reclamation of our tongue?

For someday lions advancing from the West

Will yield to beasts of stripe and iron lung.

Tyger, Tyger, burning bright! Burn brighter!

Into the waters deep He dives, burning 

All the while. With stars and globes spinning in

His eyes, where sickle satellite resides,

Seducing tides and shadowing His eyes

Watching lions waning, ever whiter.

by Anoushka Guruparan