L O Y A L T Y Poem by PRAVEEN KUMAR English

When I heard how her world, shattered,
When I learnt how her life, wrecked,
A promising future, sheared to shreds,
So shocked was I, I began to sink,
And world at large lost sense for me;
I wanted to know more three years since,
But blindfold I was, alas, dark all round,
And found light in soul fast losing shine,
Without me aware, tears rolled from eyes.

Most sensible, sincere, sweet flower she is,
Gentle in heart, simple, fragrant for all;
She hurts none, bears odds of all worlds,
Selfless to the core; sacrifice, her mark,
No jealous or ill will roamed near her;
She soon gave her soul in love to a man -
Married by then and inappropriate in age;
Caught unaware, she struggled to come out,
But, alas, as she fought, it held her tight.

Kind as she is, she resolved to not harm
The pristine bond of marriage of her man,
And drag other lives to disorder and grief;
How deep her man, she knew, loved her,
Keeping him at bay was most painful task;
She hid her pains and sheared her bond
With soul-wrenching pain consuming her;
True as her love, she vowed from soul -
She never give herself to any other man.

Post-graduate doctor, she; suitors seized her,
Parents put pressures to choose from them;
Doctors, engineers and post-graduates all
From apt families of name and honours;
She refused outright to consider any,
And faced the wrath of all in her home;
Parents she loved squeezed her hard,
And threatened of savaging name and fame
Of the man she loved, for whom she lived.

The threat truly worked, and she lost her will,
And found a marriage her need of the hour,
Lest her man harmed, that terrified her soul,
And begged for time to choose right man
In hope it saved her man his own turmoil;
Shattered was her soul, crushed was her life,
She planned her course for a wretched life,
Two thousand miles from all kith and kin
In marriage to any who helps in the task -
So no harm befalls on the light of her soul.

Ignored she her past, ignored all future,
Ignored reputation built on sound ground;
Ignored parents, who brought her to this,
And flourishing life that beckoned her;
Ignored her man for whom she lived,
Lest harms for him her parents might cause,
And left to far land with a colleague doctor,
And married him there to meet parents' needs,
So, no grudge parents bear ever harm her man.

With eyes shut, life ruined, she faced hell,
All dark, she found, in midst of new life,
Shed hidden tears while marriage enthused;
Finding no way to save from what did come,
She resignedly threw life to ritual wolves,
And felt herself soiled anyway to her man,
Alas, nor could him she cast to oblivion;
Day and night, all time, in his dear thoughts,
She found life hard to settle to new role.

Sincere as she is, simple, sweet in soul,
She sacrificed self to mould married life,
And struggled she hard to cooperate in all;
But differences in course tore married life,
Though struggled her best to keep it in track;
Pregnant she became, it hit her as a bolt,
She hated this tide from other than her man;
And refused this fall and unwound the risk
In silence to untangle from further knots.

In three years since she lived in marriage,
The fabric of bond tore to irreparable shreds,
And both lived distant on mutual consent;
Firm to not join parents back in old place,
She lived wretched life alone in distress
In the alien land without a friend or help,
Just to live her life for life's barren sake;
She found no shine, no light anywhere,
And presumed herself beyond redemption.

In three years since she faced marriage,
When I heard how her world, shattered,
When I learnt how her life, wrecked,
A promising future, sheared to shreds,
And how unsafely she did expose her life
To risks and hardships in an unknown land,
And lived wretched life all alone in distress
So shocked was I, I began to sink,
Without me aware, tears rolled from eyes.