Love in the time of plague: Malkeet Kaur

Malkeet Kaur

HERO WORSHIP 

The glimpse of a man in white deftly commandeering life 

In the middle of a devastating human tragedy 

Made this cloistered girl fall in love again,

Cherishing the caress of every furtive glance.  

But some love stories are frozen maple leaves,

Dangling between fabrication of fertile mind and factualism.

Like a body lacking backbone, these loosely

Hanging ribs are not even unfinished businesses. 

Maybe it's the enormity of calamity, she finds solace in 

Being a part of the cataclysmic little human drama. 

She schools her stray musings as she stumbles upon 

The words like 'one sided' or conveniently side steps them

To guard, this time, something which is so bewitching. 

Every desolate night she elevates him to the pedestal.

The existence of a man championing humanity,

Thinking of her even once a while in the midst of 

Saving lives every waking hour or the possibility of such an idea-

That is enough for making her survive 

Another tumultuous day every forlorn morning.

***

Bio: Malkeet Kaur works as a teacher in a public school in Navi Mumbai. She likes to express her deepest emotions in verse form. Her poems have found space in anthologies like- Awakening of She, The Acerbic Anthology - protest poems against gender violence, The Significant Anthology, The Luxembourg Review etc. and many online journals like Indiana Voice Journal, Spillwords, Episteme, Tuck Magazine etc. 

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Setu, February 2023