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Distinctly,
I see in my mind’s eye –
that (in)auspicious day of my life,
when we were bound in flowery matrimonial bonds.
those steps we took
encircling the holy fire, seven times
midst the chants of sacred Vedic verses,
when you promised to be my soul-mate for seven births…
How you rode a white Pegasus dressed in a princely attire,
sweeping me away to unseen dreams,
unknown lands and unexplored continents!
I remember our wedding night -
when the first rape of my body and soul took place,
how my maiden blood-stains mingled with fragrant rose-petals
scattered on the nuptial bed,
where your manhood dug a hole in my soul
and plunged me into a private hell.
Love had walked out of our door with your first stinging slap,
and tears of fear spilled on my satin-pillow
My injured black-eye and your sick sins,
I tried to mask with layers of make-up,
and the (un)convincing lies about my limping limbs.
My silky skin ruptured by the emotional scars of your leather-belted furies
and my fragile body bore sizzling tattoos from your angry cigarette-burns
Bloody bruises on my beautiful body were, Oh my merciless master,
your ‘master-piece’ creations,
How you crushed me under your thorny boots.
and transformed me into a crumpled bleeding red rose!
Today, on the eve of our Silvery Wedding Anniversary,
I celebrate the bounty of your beastly beatings
and drown my painful past in the goblet of my sobbing sorrows,
With tearful eyes, I torch our wedding photographs
once I had lovingly framed with fragrant flowers
in a special corner of my gold-dusted heart
I burn them all in my crippled crematorium,
and scatter the grey ashes of the corpse of our long-lost love,
polluting the holy waters of river Ganges,
and take a divine dip to perform
the final rites of my silent sufferings,
for today - you have died a million deaths
and I am born, again …
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PS: This poem is about 'domestic violence' It is based on a true incident. After hearing the plight of a very close friend of mine, who faced severe physical and mental abuse from her husband. As a result she also suffered from miscarriage & irregular menstrual cycle, etc. When I became aware of her trauma, I was in a state of shock & anger and wrote this poem on the very same day…
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