A Woman Called Nickerie*

Nickerie is a symbol
Of a woman
Out to sell her soul
For a couple of dollars
And a few drinks.
The gutters in her heart
From perpetual bleeding
Are sloughs of materialism
How else would the lotus
Bloom on the surface?
But creatures of the deep
The worms moving
In the foul waters
Producing, reproducing countless times
Never notice the myriad lotuses
In the land of Sri Ram.
All existence moves in perpetual darkness
With faint bar lights
The rulers of the underworld
Cannot face the day light.
The woman fully content
In her pleasure seeking
Continues in her waywardness
New lotuses continue to breed
And bloom—
Perhaps some day
The woman would choose to barter
Her slavery
For the eternal freedom
Offered by the lotus.

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* Nickerie is the second largest town of Suriname