At the break of dawn of Kali Yuga.
Amongst the sand dunes,
the oceans.
Humanity’s ferociously rippling commotions.
The dismembered anchors are thrown into the tamed sea.
Samsara has officially claimed the devotee.

And Krishna the convoy
by the withering tree,
suffocates
as her lungs
erupt by the feet of Himalaya.
Her fall no longer a fall but
a pilgrimage of the soul.

The path as long as her hexed golden sari,
unrolls before her stumping feet.
In self-loving solitude she no longer slithers
along the Pandava brothers. No longer a gift of defeat.
Leaning forward against the streams and the winds,
she walks as the earth scorches
the soles of her feet
that surpass Arjuna’s
and are doomed to meet
his progenies’ pitch-black stares.
They clench Draupadi’s unravelled hair
undoing the knots of Kunti’s betrayal.
Yet their hearts are filled with hubris,
with rage and with wars
they cannot seem to undo.
Feeding themselves to the great beast,
to whom they are never untrue.
Take our soul, they beg the ravenous beast,
the wrath in me will always feed the wrath in you.

Through wildfires of Kali Yuga
she stumbles and looks into flames
as they become crystal balls, mirrors
to centuries of fallen heroes,
who never returned.
Left behind.
The tempted, weakened by greed.
Those who don’t talk to the sky
and the constellations
but look for the riches
in their next outer space destinations.
Draupadi falls to the earth, self-destruction
is not in her name to dispel.
And the earth soothingly whispers:
Without doubt, all queens, O sisters,
must once see hell.
And the oceans will swell
in silence,
in faithfulness
and in agreement.
The barren dune fields
will swaddle
the Mother.
In unison and with a sweep
the oceans,
the sand dunes
will rock her back to sleep.

At dusk of Kali Yuga.

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Kate Shylo is a Crimea-born multifaceted artist. She obtained a degree in English Literature from Kingston University London in 2018 and is currently pursuing postgraduate studies in Comparative and Cultural Analysis at the University of Amsterdam. In her academic and creative work, she explores issues surrounding memory, trauma, space and identity. She works and collaborates with artists and academics in Luxembourg, Cyprus, India and the United Kingdom.

Photo: Stephen Lustig