The rich souls
Encased
In tender forms
Brimming with
Silent love,
And gentle care;
Daughters
Are that lonely
Slender tree blooming
In a vast plain
Providing cooling wind
And tiny but welcome shade
On a blazing afternoon;
They are an
Oasis in a scorching desert,
For the lost wayfarers
And exhausted caravans;
The daughters are
The Immortal
Ophelia,
Miranda,
Portia
And
Cordelia
To their fathers
Coming with
Various shades of gray;
Daughters
Are the unseen
Fragrant flowers,
Champa, Golden Champa
Or Magnolia
That bring alive
Dead hearts
And dead homes
With lingering scent!
Daughters
Sadly
Are most endangered species
In a feudal sub-continent
And elsewhere,
Treated as chattel,
Murdered in wombs,
Raped in homes or streets
By their own or the goons.
The innocents
Still considered as the
Devi-incarnates,
These hapless
Little Goddesses
Need to be fiercely
Protected and guarded
By all of us!
if I now recall my father's love for me, and of course my mother's too, there must have been the same thoughts in their minds. the poem is built on all tender images for the tender bond of a father and daughters:
"the unseen Fragrant flowers, Champa, Golden Champa Or Magnolia That bring alive Dead hearts And dead homes With lingering scent! "- ---- " endangered species In a feudal sub-continent...; --- love this poem for the passion and imagery! Rgds, Shahzia
