Side by Side, Not to Collide
by Abha Iyengar
(Based on art by Gopal M. S.)

We are lovers and we kiss
But our religions don't mix
So when we stand in line for water
We cannot stand together.
Side by side, yes,
But we will drink from different cups,
From different clay-pots.
Tell me,
Does your water taste different from mine?
If I filled the same in my mouth
And poured it into yours
We would both be defiled.
We are lovers, but the world does not know it
Skin on skin
Sweat on sweat
Breath on breath
Yet
We stand in parallel paths
Which do not cross or touch
When we drink from different cups
So close we are
Together almost,
But see that thin dividing line
Drawn deftly on the clay pots
This is yours; this is mine.
The water that flows freely
Is now captured separately.
In the name of religion
This is how it has to be.
The road we walk is different
But see the irony,
We are lovers
Who drink from each other's lips
Yet,
Drink water separately.
Skin on skinS
weat on sweat
Breath on breath
Yet,
The world will keep us from it.
Fill us in clay pots like this water
That we drink.
Tell us our gods are different,
Our vessels, our thinking,have no link.
I see you raise your arm
And dash it against the clay
Again and again you do it,
There is no stoppingyou today.
Now the earthen potsare broken.
The water gushes and flows,
It has no separate rows.
(C) ABHA IYENGAR
January 2008, first posted in Clockwise Cat