Shattered To Sing! Poem by Saroj Padhi

Shattered by the ceaseless showers
From an insistent cloudy sky,
Battered by a rough wind,
Bitten by bees and beetles
And by each passing butterfly;
I bleed, I fall as thousand shreds of petals
On leaves and grass beneath my feet
Soaked in by the Sun all dry
And know not how to hold on
In the face of ravages
Wrought by my own cunning lovers
Who called me softly by my million names
Before kissing me away to their formal ‘ bye'
As I shrank like a bride new and shy.
Now look how they still continue to suck
From my nameless wombs
The nectar from honeycombs
As they plod on my body with their fling
And their ruthless sting
I quiver, I shiver before
I recollect those words of love spoken then
I compose songs of my broken wing
Before to you all, I sadly but sweetly sing.