The Ghat Of Banaras

By Neeharika Mishra

The Ganga drifted towards the ghat, 

Suffused in the holiness of nature 

Among bustling thoughts of rabble, 

Yet her quietude was perceived by all. 

The bond of the Ganga and the ghat 

Was like the bond of life and death. 

Every brink awaited a new earth, 

Like death awaited a new life. 

The spark of the sparkless pyre 

Of the exteriority of a dead human 

Charred unless the death of death, 

In the lap of the Manikarnika of life. 

The ashes immersed in the Ganga, 

Spurted with her as far as it could 

To return to the ghat of rebirth, 

Like she returned after every death. 

She saw so many lives dispersed in her, 

And so many lives emerged from her

 Like the ghat stained in the essence 

Of the blissfulness of flickered life. 

By Neeharika Mishra