Sunday, December 25, 2011

Lac

In my dream, I was a lac insect. Like my hundred sisters, I attached myself to a new twig and drank its sap. I had no eyes so I focused my entire impassioned energy on drinking. I drank and grew and secreted raisin red as mud until I was covered with it, until we all were covered. Within my shell I held and still grew, with my hundred sisters, and within me grew the eggs. The moon waxed full; once, twice, three times.The resin pooled and spread across the branches, turning them red until the tree seemed to be a dancing flam. The waiting villagers nodded. Yes, soon. The eggs hatched, a hundred new insects attached themselves to the other trees, the villagers broke off the branches and scraped the resin clean and sent it to Varnavat where Duryodhan had ordered a palace to be built for his five cousins.
(And I? I died. No need to mourn me. My work was done)


-Panchali's Mahabharat

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