Three Poems

My father passed away suddenly in July,1991. This was my first encounter with death, upclose. As was common in those days, I got the news only after five days, through a telegram.The phone was not working in the Mumbai monsoon. I had gone into a strange mode after that, which remained with me for a year.Though outwardly, I lived a normal life, the feeling of transience always remained with me, the feeling that everything around me was temporary. Then, suddenly, the muse descended on me and I ended up writing a few poems. The peculiarity about these poems is that they were not thought out at all and were written in one go. And then, as suddenly as it had appeared, the muse departed and maybe that is all for the best!

THE MOTHER

The other day,

I read in the newspapers

Of how a young mother

Had dug her nails

Into the tender neck

Of her newborn

And drawn out the lifeblood

The life that had grown

For nine long months

In the dark warmth of her womb

The life that had grown

For nine long months

In the soil of her own flesh and blood

I wondered what made her do it

What evil forces of anger, hatred or despair

But then I learnt that it was a girl child

The third that had been born to her

The woman had known

That she had failed

Yet again

That she had given birth

To another woman

A woman who had no right

To live, to breathe, to partake of Nature's bounties

Her very existence

On God's earth

Was a crime, for which

She must forever repent

The only atonement was

To bring forth a man child

Into this world

For then and only then

Would her miserable female life

Find some worth

But this wretched mother had failed

Again and again and again

Her blind fury

Had fastened on the tiny throat

And she had watched in numb despair

The trickling of her own lifeblood

The throttling of her own womanhood

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THE COMPANION

We walk together

You and I

My faceless companion

You were a silent witness

When I entered the world

A squirming, screaming little lump

Of humanity

You smiled indulgently

At my first faltering steps

And then

As time went on

Life in all its many colored hues

Enchanted me, ensnared me and convinced me

Of my invincibility

But, even then

You wait and watch and bide your time

And then, one day

On a lonely path

I feel your touch

Upon my shoulder

Taken unawares

I turn and smile

For you, Death

Are my friend

Your name strikes no terror

In my heart

Because I know

That whatever begins

Must always end

And that, you and I

Will walk together

Hand in hand always

On the tightrope between

Mortality and Immortality

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THE MIRROR

She spends long hours

Before her mirror

And listens to its flattering tales

She drapes herself

In rich finery

Colours bright and gay

She paints her face

And hides behind it

The sullen emptiness

Of her day