A WOMAN'S TALE OF
SORROW
-Rajiv Khandelwal (India)
The feverish, fatigued
Middle-aged woman
Her spirit worn and weary
Bore the weight of sorrow upon her
shoulders
Each step heavy with the weight of loss
Her tears, suppressed torrential
downpour
Left her heart raw and bleeding
After the labyrinth of bureaucracy and
social support
Cold-shouldered her in a maze of
indifference
Buried themselves ostrich-like
Leaving her lost in the gloom of
abandonment
The government-run hospital
Gave her a body
In a sealed leak-proof plastic body bag
They said it was her husband’s body
She could do nothing but believe
She had recently lost
Her bread-earning son
And now her full of life
Projecting the feel of living forever
Truck driver husband
Had succumbed too
To corona
She could neither ask for
Emotional and material help
From her caste
For she was under familyandsocial
boycott
As she had married inter-caste
Nor request support
From some
Remaining loyal friends
For mere disclosing
Her current location
Could make her the target
For ‘honour killing’
As her brothers
After all these years
Were still searching for her
To perform the last rites
The staff of the free crematorium
Was asking for four figure amounts
Underhand
She now had no money
And at this crisis time
Could think of no one
To ask for contribution
Through the tears and torment
She knew not what to do
But like Savitri
She had her Satyavan-husband’s head on her lap
In a lovers doleful embrace
And
Pleadedfor strength
Through the labyrinth of her soul