Poetry: Shruti Mishra

Shruti Mishra

The Mistress!

So many thoughts linger in my mind,

When the thought of a mistress arrives,

So much love that woman hides in her breast,

Betrayed in the duplicity of war.

Her stars of fortune gleam no more,

Her sun is masked by hazy clouds,

Her interim nights end in canto,

Her clueless mornings start with contemplation.

Am I not a woman, ain’t I have dreams,

Am I just a fling?

Nobody looks at the love I hold,

I do have dreams,

You may call them just a reverie..

They consider her a tart, Call her illicit.

Nobody questions the man,

Who pulled her into this world,

Of his created apocalypse.

You even question her existence,

Doesn’t she has the right to love and be loved.

Does the man has the right to demean her soul,

And destroy her meaning to live.

She needs a home to call her own,

She wants a confinement of fulfilling dreams,

She wants the seed of her love,

To grow across in moor meadow.

Her little dreams cost her too much,

She has to face the consequences of being a mistress,

Her mere existence is undermined.

This is the fate of a woman or rather a mistress!!

***

Who Am I?

Who are you?

The society questions me often,

My shadow seems to be following,

Together with my reflection,

All asking the same question.

I’m also compelled to ask,

What am I? Who am I?

Am I a human being,

Or a mere object.

Do I have a heart and a sound mind,

Do I have an intellect,

Do I have the right of recognition.

Do I have a name of my own.

They say you can’t have a desire,

You can’t cherish your love,

You can’t fulfill your dreams,

You can’t relinquish your emptiness.

I dare to question them,

Is this a sin,

To have a frail heart,

To have a strong mind,

To have a body of a woman,

To have childlike desires.

Can’t I laugh… Can’t I love…

Can’t I make my own name.

Can’t I be just a human..

Can’t I be just Me…

The answer is…

I am a Woman.

All the strength lies within me.

That can rip the arguments apart.

I have the strength to bring a new life into this world,

No superfluous power can bind me.

You will see I’ll fly high in the sky,

Out of your reach and ignomity.

***

The Voice Of The Survivor

The crowd around me,

Seems to be in an over-bustling noise.

My tears have no place in my lover’s heart,

For I am a girl, is it a sin?

Or I have an opinion, is a greater sin.

I am a human being,

With brain and a heart of my own.

Having the tenacity to speak, I cannot rule.

For the society is accustomed to rule me.

I have the firmness of thorns too.

Till when are you going to bound me.

I will abandon myself from these shackles,

And rise in my quest to fly high..

The body might be destroyed,

The face might change,

The voice may change it’s tune.

But the spirit will remain the same.

In acquiring the freedom to fly high.

The burning sensation which I felt,

Has it’s imprints forever on my heart and soul.

When my voice couldn’t be heard,

And my tears couldn’t be traced.

I still long for a communion,

When I don’t have to succumb to my fate.

Being so helpless, I can only ask for help.

For if you have a heart to cry with me.

Stand still and listen to my heart’s mourning,

How my world with lights,

Changed into the scariest hell.

You can’t give my life back,

Nor my wounds would ever heal,

Help me with a penny each,

So that I get some solace in getting my confinements back.

Being a girl is what I what I have to pay for,

Do you think it is justified,

Is it such a crime to speak your own mind,

Hold my hand and let me suppress “the oppressive”.

***

Sound Of Mourning

I am etherized on my bed,

My eyes turned ruby.

I felt something throbbing,

It’s still my heart that’s beating.

The whole night went by crying,

Silently hiding my tears behind blinds,

The days went being in reverie.

I fell in silent sleep, mourning inside.

The way you betrayed,

Can pullout the corps,

And the way you lied,

Can let the rose die.

*** 

Shruti Mishra is a Lucknow-based writer, currently a scholar at the Department of English and Modern European Languages in the University of Lucknow. She is extremely passionate about writing poetry specifically love poems and sonnets.  Her works have previously been published in various online journals and newspapers. Her area of research includes Bohemian poetry and love lyrics. She has also done an extensive work in translating poetry.

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Setu, September 2020