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Kali the Mother

The stars are blotted out,
The clouds are covering clouds.
It is darkness, vibrant, sonant;
In the roaring whirling wind
Are the souls of a million lunatics,
Just loose from the prison-house.
Wrenching trees by the roots.
Sweeping all from the path.
The sea has joined the fray
And swirls up mountain waves
To reach the pitchy sky.
The flash of lucid light
Reveals on every side
A thousand thousand shades
Of death, begrimed with black.

Scattering plagues and sorrows.
Dancing mad with Joy,
Come, Mother, come!
For terror is Thy name.
Death is in Thy breath.
And every shaking step
Destroys a world for e'er.
Thou time, the All-destroyer,
Come, O Mother, come!

Who dares misery love.
And hug the form of death.
Dance in Destruction's dance -
To him the Mother comes.

Swami Vivekananda, 1898