A good man: An ode to the fasting fakir

By Athena Kashyap  Athena Kashyap’s first book of poetry, Crossing Black Waters, was a finalist in the Stephen F. Austin State University Press Award, and will be published by them simultaneously in the U.S. and India later this year. The holder of an MFA in poetry from San Francisco State University, she has published or has writing upcoming in Sanskriti, The Fourth River, Quiddity, Spork, Squaw Valley Review, the Waits-Mast Poetry Collection 2009 chapbook, Noe Valley Voice, Asia Writes among other journals. [caption id=“attachment_70902” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Anna Hazare. PTI”]  [/caption]

Old and frail, the pain he inflicts on his body, graphic as nails on a cross, make manifest evil that no longer shows its face, morphed into grandeur that flaunts over the weak and helpless, only to be pitied. Pulled towards him, the fading good in us is suddenly galvanized…a good man is dying for us, for who we can be. Can we toss aside our dreams for flat-screen televisions, luxury cars? Value the good that outshines the shining power can buy? We yearn to spoon food into his feeble mouth, but know he seeks a different nourishment we have to search deep within ourselves to provide.