BAIDEHI

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?"

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