VAIDEHEE

He did not even cast a cursory glance at me
Even though we met after a thirteen-year separation.
My snuffed womanhood yearned
For a few soothing words from him.
Instead, he demanded a testimony of chastity.
I was stultified, tears gushed out of my closed eye lids.
A sense of emptiness gripped my feelings
Laxman and a few others argued for me
But nothing could melt his avalanche ego.

As the evening mist was stealing in
from the nearby hills, I consigned myself to flames.
Dusk was melting into night
And a star twinkled on the blue firmament.

Probably, kindness dawned upon him, and so
Before I was burnt to ashes, he lifted out
my smoldered body to his palace.
Our togetherness had become an island
Surrounded by strange waters of suspicion.

In a chilling winter night he knocked at my doors.
I slipped out of the back doors, surreptitiously
To the banks of the river of distress, while
The pale moon shed cool light from heaven's lofty heights.

I heard a thunderous roar from a distance
Just like Ravana's laughter
Unafraid I laughed like a lunatic
And asked my inner self
"Was Lanka in any way inferior to Ayodhya?