by Anish Raj
A long while ago,
Besotted with quite an ego,
Feeling shallow & dejected
My hysteria ejected
I realized that I very much could,
Bid my salutations without adding the word “Good”,
So again – “Morning People”!
My Following poem, is an emotional creation,
Human in nature, and full of devotion.
I have a twin sister, & we form completely different bands,
While I perform now, she watches from the stands.
It was dark in the dusk,
I was having my tea and rusk,
Without much contemplation
I began my conversation
As always the rant was random,
And my beautiful sister heard all my tantrum.
Today however, there was something odd
My sister seemed afar,
She couldn’t face my eyes
Eventually I asked, “Why?”
Life is unfair, she quipped,
All just about what you can dare,
I didn’t quite understand her worries –
Was too immature for her epiphanic worries.
She glanced at me & smiled like a mime,
While she took me across the sands of time.
I saw a picture, It was Mother!
“I’m pregnant”, mother said
A moment to rejoice it was!
Ecstasy engulfed the environment,
Jubilation replaced apprehension,
An uneasy question slipped in though,
When the father asked, “Is it a boy?”
Dignity was hurt; expectation shattered,
“What can a girl do?” moaned the father.
Speculation of an end, loomed out of the dark
“Medical Extermination by a surgical demon!”
The thought tripped her mind,
Mother saved her, but the scars of fear
Stayed with her, behind.
“School was fun”, she said.
Mother smiled and father smirked,
“Books are for the sons”,
Whispered the elders of the family
A confused soul she was,
Thought they all loved her,
Hoped they all cared for her,
And longed for all their support
For them though, she was nothing but a burden
An obligation, a liability.
A pinch in the arm that no one wants,
A weight on the shoulder that no one needs
18 came and so did the guy next door,
Hushed whispers lit her nightly hours,
A source of joy concealed the darkness within,
And for once, all her worries did she finally ignore.
“But she is an unmarried woman!”cried the moral police.
The guy, timid and scared, left without a sign,
And the girl!
“Oh! What could the girl do?”
The glistening beads of sorrow trickled down her starry eyes,
Silky hair cascaded down her shoulders,
The bruises on her arms reeked of dreary lies,
And in her heart she carried a boulder.
Her brow was a landscape of despair,
The scars on her cheek, a testimony of betrayal.
The crimson on her forehead had no meaning
For her, it was a mark of the devil.
Two months ago, the ring had slipped into her finger;
She had insisted she wasn’t ready to be a wife.
She wanted to study and become a doctor
And use the scalpel instead of the knife
She wanted to travel the world
And visit the places never seen before
She wanted to bathe in nature,
Not engage in household chores.
The cacophony of celebrations and the shower of confetti
Had drowned her resistance,
She could not fight the elements anymore,
Finding faults in existence.
One day, she did end her story,
The aunts cried, because it’s there job to cry
The uncles frowned, because it’s there job to frown,
Shocks and sighs, “A painless death had saved her pride”.
But! She can’t be gone!
She can’t be gone!!!
She can’t be gone!!!
Mother! Mother! Look!, there she goes away!
Mother! Mother! Look!, there she flows away!
And I woke up
Drenched, clenched, & in shivers,
I called out for my mother,
I want to know why,
I keep seeing a girl, both smart and shy,
She look like me,
Can you answer why?
Upon the revelation,
My mother froze her eyes,
Like a laser beam in a tunnel,
I could hear her cry.
And my mother replied,
“On the day I was blessed with you
I felt I had the stars and all the skies blue
I laughed as I cried, I smiled as my tears dried
For pain never felt better,
Screams never more serene
Feeling the kicks never more relieving
For the tiny angels in my hands were mine…, & I was his.”
Angels?, His?
It dawned like lightening unto my eyes
The tiny angels were my sister & me
But my father being the most cruel,
Took one of the angels from the dual.
And so!!! My sister talks,
She listens to my worries,
She answers my queries,
She watches over from the skies, she watches from the crowds,
Although I just talk to her in my dream,
I think she and I make a great team,
She scolds me when I act foolish,
“Act like you’ve got some sense”,
She straightens me up when I am irrational,
“Act like you are someone”,
And I can’t wait to go to sleep tonight!
Because she and I have a lot to talk about.