"When I'm on a crowded bus and someone says something bad to me, in my heart I want to give him a tight slap, but I've learned to ignore it," says Gogia, the New Delhi receptionist. "What's the use? All the blame always comes back to the woman.” -MUNEEZA NAQVI Associated Press, NEW DELHI, January 7, 2013 INDIA BLOSSOM (A Poem for Jyoti Singh Pandey) Wither spreads upon flora petals sin slits and plucks. Its venom darkens waves twigs stretch to drink. Lotus is life correlation men cannot emulate yet some willfully berate bloom of its epic stems. Amid this hell lotus struggles as a woman. Wilted, torn like a ragged root slumped in a fist above soil, motionless in Satan’s death breeze before dawn. Light emerges— life is born. Lotus flower is a timeless creation.                              ...