Published in Issue 18 of Visionary Tongue, 2003.

Obtaka – The Magician

Moon goddess came to visit the forest last night
Riding on chariots driven by the velvet monkeys
Guarded by hornets and the armies of wasps
Beleaguered in obscurities by Obtaka the magician.

A maker of charms for the thieves and the lovers
Talisman of skies from paled skins of foreheads
Nail maker hoofed webs of the antelopes
Shifter of the sharp swords for the reddish ants.
Striding solid at the hour of the midnight
Giving way to doorways to enter the corridors
Illuminated by the translucent light of the moon.

Tender are the dreams under the wider skies
Where buffalos roam in mud staked stripes
Conversing with mirrored spirits of golden ghosts
Witches, wizards, nymphs or other watery sports.

The chameleon on converse with the blizzards
Obeying the command to put spur on the lizards
The crocodiles, hippopotamus, ibis and the lion
Drinking at water holes under direction of wizard
Rocked white, stone turned hatches for the rabbits
Skin rigged, log wooded dug outs for the jackals
The eel of the deep laughing on its trailed dance
And Obtaka the magician roams in rugged stance.

SPELLS

At the cross roads
A megrim of five elements
The place where the ends meet
In four directions of the body
A union of the vital breaths
Within contours of eclipsed sun.

To carry the crimson beads
Shelled within a gripped garland
Forms featured of some confines
By the spirits of trees in blessing
In the lands where the deeds end
Under stirruped shadows of saturn.

The waters of the orbs
Diffused across the universe
Jelled across pock marked hills
In whom all the gestures
Preserved as deep and still
Born of its own self
Like the fire in wooded glades
Bursting forth at touch of blades.

Magical rites of sat karma.

Spells for preserving the body
Spells for warding off wounds
Spells to procure prosperity
Spells to court adversity
Spells to remove sterility.

Here in the stillness
Silence piercing the powered end
But in the mirrored waters
Reflected a new journey begets.

© Durlabh Singh

I am a poet/artist based in London, England. As a poet I have been widely published both in print and on the net and have four books of my solo verse published, the latest being Chrome Red (ISBN 1898030464).
As an artist I have exhibited all over the world and my works are in private/public collections. My aim is to revitalize contemporary arts with new expressions.

Sahib mera nit navan
Sada sada daata

My God is new everyday
He is the giver (of newness)

Sikh Scripture