Saturday 1 August 2020

Usha Srikanth, Poetry 2020 Longlist

The Blue Goddess


My heart throbbing, my mind fretting, I ran out

baby you were blue, I knew without a doubt


I felt your body for death

strangely from the little blue came a sharp breath


Naked on a threadbare cot you lay in the cold

I saw that you were bold, though just three days old


Your eyes flickered, it was faint and feeble

I smiled, for, your zest for life was agreeable


Your mother was I, though failed to be one

engulfed in guilt I stared at what I had done


You were my second girl, hence there was no joy

it was our fate as you were not a boy


Death for you meant life for me, this was decided by the others,

holding you I wondered: was it so with all the mothers?


They said, “Leave her naked in the cold to freeze,

let the girl breathe her last with ease.”


I now looked up at the Goddess that we pray

and smiled at you, my Goddess who chose to stay!


You had chosen life, I loved your resolve

The mystery of the vanishing girls remains unsolved


Wrapping you in my arms I now rushed

With you I embraced life, now all the voices were shushed.

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