Shakambhari is a Hindu goddess, who upon witnessing a terrible drought, created eyes across her entire body and wept continuously for nine days, pouring rivers down onto the earth.

& what can we coax
out of this earth’s rotation
but knowledge of such magnitude,
as in: how many rivers are needed
to holy the body & at what point
does a fissure birth a break & when
will we learn it is in our nature to
scorch the earth and then weep over
the conflagration. & even sightless
I knew to be careful with my potential
for damage, every illuminated ribbon
behind my eyelids denoting continued
vigilance, though the sound of a pattering,
steadily repeated, can lull you into
complacency. & bottomless depths
are constructed only from sourceless
drops & I can smell the petrichor, I can
see every scar on the earth, I have never
been blinded by the deluge. I could not
fall sleep amidst my watchful keening.

Nina Sudhakar is a writer, poet and lawyer currently based in Indianapolis. She is the winner of the 2017 Bird’s Thumb Poetry Chapbook contest and her manuscript, Matriarchetypes, is forthcoming later this year. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Ecotone, Arcturus and TRACK//FOUR; for more, please see www.ninasudhakar.com.