becoming sita

sometimes
you find pearls
not in the depths
of untouched oceans,
but out in the wild
where trees mate
and die,
where a fire sits
readying herself
for the flames she grows
with her fidelity -
not to a man
the world loves,
but to a breath
that fans her waters
and tongues of fire
into which she leaps,
with the close of every day
living at the cusp
of two worlds,
the lakshman rekha,
becoming
sita.