Radiance - II

Like a candle flame
he’d been working through the night.

He needs the quiet luxury of a beedi
that’d recede his throbbing headache.

He scrutinizes his sculpture,
reminisces the greener days,

A young pair of hands busily crafting
one idol frame…

Since then it’s been a tale of flickering
fortunes; a journey in search of brightness.

He coughs severely, even the beedi’s smell
seems to let him down.

He imagines his wife’s blank stare,
the sour smile of his disabled son …

This studio is such a muggy room,
the window no better than a pigeon-hole…

He watches his rejected works,
mutilated forms stacked in a corner.

The candle gasps. The eastern sky
calmly lightens up. Goddess smiles benign.