Exclusive: Best of Women Poetry: Edited by Padmaja Iyengar-Paddy
LIFE OF A CREMATORIUM WORKER
From dawn to dusk, tryst with death on all
days
Breaking stereotypes to do such jobs
Arranging pyres for a proper blaze
Dealing with corpses amidst human sobs
Their youth and peace many a time it robs
Generation after other engaged
Even if the stomach growls and head throbs
With ghostly calm they toil, never
outraged
When untimely deaths bring along people
enraged.
Day after day as the huge fires rage
Even when their progenies’ future stare
Inhaling smoke as they stoke for their
wage
Infections and ailments are theirs to bear
It’s a man’s locale, they’ve managed to
dare
Their abode sooty, dark and ramshackle
They have stood their ground amidst all
the scare
Social stigmas managed to tackle
I salute the women who’ve broken such
shackle(s).
(After reading an article about the plight
of women working in the crematorium)
Hema Ravi writes metrical
verses, haiku, haibun and ‘vers libre.’ Her write-ups and verses have been
published in the Hindu, New Indian Express, Femina, Woman's Era, and several
online and international print journals. A few haiku and form poems have been
prize winners. She is the author of
‘Everyday English,’ ‘Write Right Handwriting Series1,2,3,’ co-author of Sing
Along Indian Rhymes’ and ‘Everyday Hindi.’
She scripted, lent voice support for ‘Everyday English with Hema,’
series of English lessons broadcast by the Kalpakkam Community Radio. She is a freelance trainer for IELTS and
Communicative English.
Best of Women Poetry -2020 :: Setu, March 2020
This sensitive and thought provoking poem celebrates the strength of women. Women poets have begun to write about social issues.
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