I don’t cater to feminism or argue on battle of sexes as I don’t quite believe in them. But my friends often say that I should start feeling like a ‘woman’ before it’s too late. So here I go...
FELT LIKE A WOMAN...
Sitting by the window and looking unto the vast sky
That spreads across me in hues in plentitude
With the knell of a departing day I stare;
Brought before me holding my daddy’s hand –
His hand was big, warm and tough and mine soft and little:
That’s when I felt like daddy’s little woman getting ready to march.
I marched every day after that –
Still under my father’s able shade
Only to see one day a storm coming down to shake his yellow leaves.
Crippling down he looked weaker staring at me –
Our eyes met and he looked in dismay; I wanted to hug him and calm him
But he rattled fiercely and my little arms were unable to hold him tight...
I opened my eyes trembling and sweating profusely,
Turned around to see the silent sky studded with sparkling diamonds
I felt better releasing a sigh.
I looked on the other side to see him in a peaceful slumber –
The world does not exist outside the blanket we shared
I pushed myself towards him to be in his world,
Reached onto him to plant an unaware kiss on his forehead
As I did not wish to call him from his unperturbed world,
I lay beside him watching all the night and in the first ray of dawn,
With two moist eyes and a smile to accompany all through;
That’s when I felt like woman following him on our way.
We passed the green meadows, beaches and hilltops together,
Sometimes ran, sometimes chirpy and sometimes walked in silence,
We passed sunny days, shivering nights, under the first drop of rain
Holding hands and marching towards our den.
That night seemed long and I was longing in pain
But the early hours of dawn drifted those tears to gift me a crying infant
And I kept staring mesmerised by his innocent yelling.
He bore a mini face, eyes, nose and fingers of a human -
When I tickled with my finger around his neck,
A smile bloomed up from no-where to shine up my day.
We laughed, talked and played all the day using an undefined language
And cuddled to sleep together as much as close possible –
That’s when I felt like a woman guarding my chalice from the frets of existence.
Still sitting by the window as the dusk sinks in,
I stare at the hues spread across the sky with serene eyes
Still hearing the beatings of the heart singing to me –
The music played on the harp of a daughter, a wife and a mother;
That’s when I felt like a woman to be the music that the harper played on.
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