Kali Ma

Goddess of Transformation
Kali follows me home from Ireland
after an encounter on a Drama therapy course.
She sits in the middle of the wooden floor
with her many arms outstretched.
At times she is quiet,
sleeping with her three eyes open.
Red bangles and jewels fall around her waist;
silver bells adorn her dark ankles.
How long is she going to stay?
She isn’t like other visitors.
She frightens my friends when she exercises her arms
and brandishes her sword.
It’s getting worse;
she’s started stamping her feet,
the earth is cracking open.
She’s dancing wildly in the garden,
hurling abuse at the neighbors.
I’ve asked her to leave.
She laughs and sticks her long red tongue out.
She doesn’t notice what is happening to me.
I stay in bed, stop eating,
sleep, dream of who I will become.
When I wake,
she is there, comforting me with her many arms.
She makes me laugh when she rolls her eyes
and waggles her long red tongue.

(Kali Ma – Hindu Goddess of death and rebirth, also known as the Goddess of Transformation) Written after attending the Heroes Journey in Kilkenny, Ireland, 1995           

Raine Geoghegan, M.A. is a Romani poet, writer and playwright living in the UK. She is a Forward prize, twice Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net 2018 nominee. Her work has been published online and in print. Her two pamphlets are published by Hedgehog Press. Her essay is featured in the anthology ‘Gifts of Gravity and Light’ with Hodder & Stoughton. Her First Collection will be published with Salmon Poetry Press in March 2022.

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