the temple steps

lead to the corner end…

with Ardhanarishvara

the devotees divinely sense

the softness of the stony carvings

Author’s note: The name Ardhanarishvara means ‘the Lord whose half is a woman’. In Hinduism and Indian mythology many deities are represented as both male and female, manifesting with characteristics of both genders, including Ardhanarishvara, created by the merging of the Lord Shiva and his wife Parvati.

Special Feature on “Yin, Yang, and Beyond: Short Poems of Sex and Gender in the 21st Century”, Atlas Poetica, 2015 (Ed.Tokido Kizenzen)

http://atlaspoetica.org/?page_id=1471