THE NIGHTMARE

THE NIGHTMARE

The night is burning away,
Everywhere the flames sway,
In a naked dance of brutality,
The man made signs of fatality,
Stare at me in the eyes,
As I turn to ice,
The red skies reflecting the shades fire,
My heart gets filled with utmost ire,
Seeing the torn clothes,shoes scattered around,
In the crackling noise,all voices of people drowned.

The entire world is burning and set afire,
Burning buses,houses,shops,bags,clothes,tyres,
The stench of burning things fills the air,
Everything turned scary,unnatural and bizarre,
There are people with sticks and swords,
Turning to mobs,crowds and hordes,
The pictures of religious horror,
Crossing all limitations and borders,
The gory red of the blood scattered
Here and there, humanity stood shattered.

The burning stench of flesh made my stomach churn,
Made me puke, feel sick and spurn,
Every thing horrible spinning around,
All human values to the soils downed,
In this scenario of hatred,
I go around bedraggled,
Looking for you, all straggled,
As I staggered and waggled,
In the dreary,dark by lanes,
To hear and see,my eyes and ears badly strain.

To hear a sound ,hear your voice,
Birds flutter in fright,having lost all joys,
All enveloped in a deadly quietness,
Despite the shouts,persists an eery stillness,
My eyes scout here and there for your silhouette,
Amidst the murderous violence and threat,
My body covered in cold sweat,
As I looked inside shops,mounds,statuettes,
I want to ask somebody about your whereabouts,
But whom to trust? Am filled with frightful doubts.

How will I get to you?
How long will it take to locate you?
Prayed to the Gods to guide me your way,
Amongst the gore and the night’s gray,
With senseless people running around to slay,
I wait with bated breath for the early lights of the day,
All of a sudden I see you crouched,
Sitting against a corpse,slouched,
In vain I run to you,hoping against hopes
To see you alive,in the darkness,I grapple and grope.

You sat still like a body dead,
To me returned the unknown dread,
Of not finding you breathing and alive,
To control my breaths, my heart strives,
I placed my hand in front of your nose,
As I  looked into your eyes,our gaze froze,
Your warm blood and body, filled me with joy,
My little heart brimming with overjoy,
Though strange in this torturous environ,
Joyfully I took you in my embrace like a matron.

Cuddling you, soothing you, trying to comfort,
Slowly easing you out of your discomfort,
My heart came back from the throes of sadness,
Snuggled together in the darkness,
Trying to shake you out of the gory quake,
As we waited for the daybreak,
Gradually I slip into sleep,
Relieved of the enormous heap,
My heart carried for hours,
The murderous gory spurs.

I wake up to the chant of prayers,
In our room,in the soft bed of ours,
Oh! What a nightmare!
In fright stood all my hair,
Remembering it all, I again perspire,
Thinking of the night’s consequences dire,
I fold my hands in obeissance,
To Him, in true trust and allegiance,
I am happy to have you still around,
With me,our family and everything on ground.

I am thankful it was all a dream,
As tears well up in my eyes and gleam,
I see you again,holding my chin up from your embrace,
To see you in flesh and blood,your happy face,
My heart went out in a prayer for those in such situations,
Held up in human madness,impatience and frustrations,
Thank God,a mere nightmare it was,
Though scary,as you are there,still some relief it draws,
Never ever leave me alone,for it will stop my breath,
That will be my end,when life will make way for death.

-Madhumita

II THE VILLAGE GIRL

Not are the stars for me,
Not the world for me to see,
Not meant for me are the small joys of life,
My life is just full of strife,
My brother has the right to go to school,
While I sit at home,learn to handle utensils and wool,
Educating myself is beyond my bounds,
No games,no sports, no playgrounds,
The kitchen remains my only ground,
Where I learn to cook,grind and pound,
The various spices and corns
And take care of the animals and farms.

I have my food when my brother returns,
Even though the acids cause my stomach burn,
I can eat only after he has satiated his hunger,
Then thus come my turn , my number,
The milk at home is all for him,
The butter, the curds and the cream,
He has the right to pursue his dreams,
While I am not even allowed to daydream,
He can anytime pull my plaits,
When I stoop down to clear his plates,
Though younger to me he always slaps
Me and I cannot even go and cry in Maa’s lap.

He is the apple of everyone’s eyes,
He is the family’s pride and exhibited as a prize,
While I too a child crave for their love,
To a corner I get a shove,
I am treated as not their own,
As if I came from somewhere else,unknown,
Grandparents talk of me as a curse,
To all my goodness,they are averse,
I am a temporary being in this home,
To be sent away forever,someone burdensome,
They do not know I am a part of them,have their genome,
Or that one day I will be gone,never again to come.

At fourteen or fifteen,
Barely into my teens,
I am married off to some stranger,
He will be my master,my destiny changer,
My God, my life’s manager,
As I take care of his hearth,farms and mangers,
I will be beaten black and blue,
If ever some dreams in my eyes brew,
Even though a child, I will be required to fulfil his urges,
Pained,weak,bloodless I grow,yet be branded worthless,
One day the child in me conceives another child,
I pass my days in a daze, beguiled.

I am made to work and labour still,
To cook,wash,clean and till,
As months progress,I pale and wane,
When I fail to work,I bear the canes,
With loads of work and frugal meals,
Noone lends an ear to my mercy appeals,
One sunny day I fall and faint,
The comforts of a hospital ain’t
For me,the village midwife arrives late,
Bleeding,with a dry mouth and fast breaths I wait,
Only to give birth to a stillborn;
And before long I too was gone.

With noone to cry for me,
Noone to mourn me,
I was the village girl,
Who wanted to dance and swirl,
Who wanted to decorate her dreams with pearls,
Wanted to roam the world in a whirl,
Who wanted to learn to read and write,
But was refused all her rights,
She was never a child for her own,
They could never hear her cries and moans,
My dreams,my joys,my tears,my aims all burn with me,
All turned to ashes; None to feel sad,shed tears for me!!

– Madhumita

III TOGETHERNESS

My love for you knew no bounds,
It grew in abounds,
I traveled to magical lands,
Your hands holding my hand,
Together we flew high and high,
Touching the lovely blue sky,
Traversing amidst the planets and stars,
Going away from the world, afar.
The flowers coloured  our lives,
As our hearts danced in jives,
The butterflies carried us to lands of dreams,
Where happiness flew forever in lively streams,
The green trees,protected us from harsh sunbeams,
The pearly dew drops in the leaves did gleam,
As our palms clasped over each other,
Love gushed in setting the hearts aflutter.
The squirrels sitting beside us were friends,
Nibbling at walnuts and almonds,
They looked at us with eyes amused,
As we both in love were soused,
The peacock reveled in all it’s feathered glory,
As we created a beautiful story,
A story loaded with pure love,
To build a new  world of love,we throve.
My face shone in a pinkish sheen,
With great care I would dress and preen,
To take me in your arms,you eagerly waited,
Our souls,in love conjugated,
Tied by solemn vows wholehearted,
Day day by our love blossomed,
Not letting anything in between,
To come together as one,we were too keen.
To our coming together the nature was witness,
In all it’s finery and sweetness,
The starlit sky doubled as decorative lights,
In the cool twinkling, velvety night,
The spring flowers bedecked the bridal chamber,
Encompassing in a fragrant perfume and flavour,
When we embraced each other,
Mingling into one another.
Our hands clasped and heartbeats fast,
The seconds slipped,the minutes passed,
Our figures against each other entwined,
All our warm feelings  aligned,
The charged up emotions raced along,
Like a mesmerizing,melodious song,
Then we gave in to our desires,
All became one with the fires.
The night celebrated our togetherness,
As we caressed in all tenderness,
Opening up to each other,threw away all hesitation,
We reached the ultimate levels of elation,
Our affections and dedication,
Reached its culmination and consecration,
As slowly we passed into a happy slumber;
And a night forever and ever to remember.

-Madhumita

IV My Destination

The moon peeping in around,
From behind the silken clouds,
Looking about with open eyes,
As the night slowly  tip toes,
The velvety darkness,slips ,
Bit by bit and dreams start their trip
Into my colourful, romantic world,
As rainbows whirled,
I furled and curled
In the soft touches,of my dreamworld.

I try to capture the silky grace
Of the night in an embrace,
It slithered and moved ahead,
Fast like the lightening it fled,
To touch the sky,so full of glittering stars;
And I try hard to douse the fires,
Of pinings and yearnings,
Of immense longings,
Stuck in a rigmarole of emotions,
In my world of rosy,romantic notions.

I rub my sleepy eyes,
Somehow they try,
To differentiate between real life
And my dreams,so full of life ,
In front of me stood reality,
Laughing at me in delight and glee,
Trying to tell me,that beyond my dreams,
Lay clearer skies and heights extreme,
My dreams, my longings ,my desires,
Belong to this world and are very much here.

My senses wake me up,
As my body shivers and shakes up,
I sit up,gather myself and realise,
When my thoughts catechise,
The truth of my dreams here,
That I can pursue and dare;
And the futility of my imaginary world,
The tempting,silky,lustrous dreamworld,
My dreams,my ambitions, here they are,
This world is my destination,the best by far.

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