Dawali

Today light conquers darkness
good triumphs over evil
knowledge beats ignorance

as millions of Hindus light lamps
and decorate floors with colored
rice and sand and flour designs

designed to banish the dark side
of the universe from their little
corner of it where they are doing all

they can to push back darkness
and ignorance and evil into
the far corners of the rooms they live in.

This high holy day and festival
cries out to be celebrated here in
The Land of Creeping Ignorance

the land of ten million guns
the land of double talk and new-
speak, of hatred and intolerance

of violence and daily death
in school yards and churches and
nightclubs. We all need to light

some lamps and make mandalas on our
living room floors. Today please. This
darkness that surrounds us, will drown us all.