Seven Sins of Heaven

 

 

Seldom with twilight, the earth sits on my chest,

Weighing the burden down to my feet,

where the first sin rests, it’ll be made by each goddess,

on a night when her heart will be heavy like raven clouds,

her tears will fall from the skies when she will be lost again,

far from her lands, and not a single human could hear her sobs,

one sin gets committed with the dawn of a new aera,

a woman must fulfill this fallacy, so did the Gods say!

Second sin was locked secretly in her heart,

beneath her tender bosoms, she must not know but commit it,

the gluttony of sharing hearts with a serpent,

that would be her silent mate, not a muscle of it shall move,

when she will sing those songs of despair, melancholy and sorrows,

perhaps Puck would eavesdrop, listening to the gloomy melodies,

unknowingly when she would make another sin come out from its chest,

the serpent will slowly move its way to spread those,

words into the woods, and so shall those be heard,

a woman’s heart full of distress is against all the laws of the gods,

she is to smile; gods decided it was the only code of conduct!

Third sin stayed right beneath her tongue, but it was the altar,

of the most hideous crimes, a woman swearing not fearful to the gods,

her words will float to the farthest ears, farthest lands, to myriad men,

she will stand the biggest culprit, and gods decided lay upon her chest,

the heaviest of the anvils, she must feel the burden till her next birth,

only then the flawless goddess will be carved, every sin must be purged off,

heaven would not take a woman filled with gluttonies and faults,

the fathers said. The fourth sin will be her silence,

that mustn’t break, if the heaven shakes, she had broken the rule!

Her shrieks and wailing should be walled, the crevices carrying,

it to the higher gods will only befall the shame upon her facade,

her perfect stature mustn’t be broken, just like her hymen,

it can happen only once and so a woman mustn’t wail and sob,

the code of conduct made by the seven husbands from seven heavens,

rules laid in fortnight neither did the rain stop nor did the storm,

and fell one after another their unwritten rules,

but all for the woman and none for the gods,

and this character passed on to their sons who were

born from but a woman.

The fifth sin was the biggest evil, it resided in her conscience,

that she was to kill on her first night of betrothal,

to the walls, the bed and the chamber but not to a man,

her dignity, which was just a drop from her skin,

that fell on the bed and drowned into the sheets, she was to do the same,

her dignity a fall of drop of a sweat in the oceans of many cottons,

is she to raise that esteem was to commit the fifth sin,

for there was no forgiveness to a woman who made opinions tall,

taller than the walls of her room.

The Sixth sin was to make postures more than allowed with a doll body!

She was to sit, bathe, stand, sleep and breathe,

with permissions from the higher gods,

if the doll moved more or danced much, she was to be discarded,

as a woman of loose character with blood of coastal moons,

the rule book read and taught by none other than a woman herself

to her sons, and from above watched the gods.

Seventh Sin was the most malevolent if committed by the goddesses as well,

its ghosts would haunt every night in sleeps,

in joy or sorrows, it was the spirit of the guilt that needed to be,

faced every dawn in her reflection, a guilt like a nightmare,

that sat on the chest of the woman who made a blasphemy of,

being possessive of her lover, lovers were to be set free,

they would tread their paths, you keep the porch lights lit,

they will come back, but he is a fruit you must learn to share,

your place is the in the walls, it will soothe your ailing heart,

not a mother, not a friend, not a sister but those soggy walls,

which had drunk myriad brides’ tears,

you must not roam wildly in the woods, don’t let the gods,

see your shadow, they will follow your footsteps and come with you,

the Seven Sin of the heavens follow with your shadow,

it will lure you and if you commit them, you just keep falling, falling,

deeper into a void, from where there is no path home,

with the retelling of this old folklore,

at dawn I swallow one knot again in my throat, the earth,

goes to my lungs, this heaviness I feel of many women and goddesses,

and of the queens, who won wars but these sins sat heavier till their graves…

 

~Monalisa Joshi~

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