Vandana Parashar
Garbhagriha
this unbroken sea
and miles of night…
the darkness
inside me aligns with
the darkness around me
“Were you silent or were you silenced?” What difference does it make?
The unsaid words, the yells and screams, are trapped inside me. Threaded together, layer upon layer, they will soon choke me to death. If only I can scream my lungs out.
Will it save me? Will it save others from me?
howling wind
laments the story
of temple ruins…
why didn’t the deity
raise hell
Note: The garbhagriha is the innermost sanctum of a Hindu temple, often referred to as the “womb chamber.”
About the Author
Vandana Parashar is an associate editor of haikuKATHA and one of the editors of Poetry Pea and #FemkuMag. Her chapbooks include I Am (Title IX Press/Moth Orchid Press, 2019) and Alone, I Am Not (Velvet Dusk Publishing, 2022). Her chapbook A Call’s Loon was among Brooks Books’ 2025 HIGH/COO Chapbooks Annual Competition winners.