I raise my hand,
Spread my fingers,
Eager to snatch the clouds.
In all the world,
My favourite specter.
The white and the grey,
The silver lined,
And the thundering blacks,
I love them all.
The contours, shapes,
Sculpted smoothness,
Built on air,
Nothing more.
And I wish,
How I wish!
That we could see,
We are all like them!
The black, the white,
The differences,
All the conflicts,
Everything to water, silences!
Written in a state of outrage, couple of years ago, when the ‘alma mater’ was ‘my college’.
I wondered at it.
Seemed a tree trunk,
Hauled for some purpose,
Discarded futile.
Our people, so warm and attentive,
Felt the need for it in future…
I had smirked.
Sometime back,
A glance I chanced.
Too white for a tree trunk.
Looking closer, a label revealed.
Bewildered I read,
Below the scientific name-‘WHALE’S JAW’!!!
In confusion my heart pounds.
Was it negligence,
Intention or decision?
On the graying tiles,
To leave such an adornment,
Let it gather dust and pity?
For a decent case or cover,
(Forget maintenance!)
Funds if we have not,
To the museum of natural history,
Donate the poor soul and…
Regretfully remind the self,
Not withstanding our ego,
That we, homosapiens,
So miniscule to nature,
As the object of discussion to us!
Well, this poem is a bit different from my usual style. But, it was required to convey the point exactly as i wanted it. It is about a woman breaking free from the patriarchal norms that were constructed to keep her bound She is talking to her oppressor, who considers the shared power solely as his!
If I am guilty,
(As you say)
Let me be hung,
Burnt at the stakes;
As a heretic!
If I am guilty,
(Do not whisper that I am!)
Tell the world my crime,
My sin be disclosed,
Reveal the charge sheet!
But, nay, that you won't!
(Oh, only whisper you can,
Voice yours weak,
When my ordained silence,
I break!
For, that is my sin!)
You can't!
The scepter so long embraced,
Power so long clutched,
Your spine rots with fear!
Aeons, you made believe,
(I see your gaze falter,
My eyes, you fail to meet!)
I hold no rights,
I have no needs, nil wants!
Desires are sin,
But YOU,
In their ravishing fulfillment,
You swim!
Eternity, I passed,
Numbed at the blood,
That flows between my legs!
My freedom, it forbids,
You told me!
And in shame, I hung my head,
Believing;
Mea Culpa,
Mea Maxima Culpa!
But, no more!
(Do you hear?)
My worth, I realize!
Yes, I do!
(LOOK at me, when I speak!)
The world awaiting me,
More fulfilling, I find productivity,
Than mere reproduction!
I know,
(Though, realize, you do not!)
Imperialism is an attitude,
On its own, it never fades,
In soul’s deepest innards,
It struggles,
Coyly cuddling thy ego,
Till cut out and burnt down!
And that I will hunt, cut and burn!
(This I promise, this I swear!)
Your seal of power,
That scepter you hold,
(Any tighter clutch,
And you will break it!)
Will soon have another hand on it!
