{For the anonymous Indian women,
whose defiled and burned bodies
form a daily news item in the media}
Don’t tell me her name.
Let me cry for her,
let me cry for me
for I am woman born.
Let me map
my plagued body
in bruises, in burns,
in the stench
of kerosene,
in the fumes
of poison,
in the agony
of a defiled soul.
Let me write my body,
drowned in milk; my body
plucked, torn asunder
from my mother’s womb,
gasping for breath;
my body, torn apart for sins
of womb and breast.
Let me write a glorious
Motherland, where
inglorious women writhe.
Do I weep for myself
for I am lost hope, beating
my weathered bosom
in the annals of history?
Or do I write myself
as Kali incarnate
trampling a nation’s shame?
Kali – Indian goddess of destruction
{Acknowledging Nilanjana Roy}
© Usha Kishore, December, 2012
Indian born Usha Kishore is an internationally published poet, resident on the Isle of Man. Her work has won prizes in UK competitions and recently shorlisted for the Erbacce Prize 2012 .
Indian born Usha Kishore is an internationally published poet, resident on the Isle of Man. Her work has won prizes in UK competitions and recently shorlisted for the Erbacce Prize 2012 .
