by Sukrita Paul Kumar
For a woman, the sadness that comes with parting could be as traumatising as a snake twisting and turning in her belly. Sukrita Paul Kumar captures the feelings of a pregnant woman about to deliver her baby.
Sadness sits like
a snake in my belly
turning and twisting
Giving me hysterics
It sits
Hissing subtle threats
of yet another severance,
Emitting warnings
through my glassy
half-closed eyes
Forcing them open
to
stone stillness,
snow silence,
and a reptile alertness
Sadness travels down my spine
reaching my womb…
Your own home
where I held you tight
till you
pushed your way
into a world of
Self, identity and
sadness.
Born and brought up in Kenya, Sukrita Paul Kumar is a noted poet and critic, teaching literature in Delhi currently. Formerly, a Fellow of the Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla, she is an Honorary Fellow of the International Writing Programme, University of Iowa (USA), as also of Hong Kong Baptist University and Cambridge Seminars. She is honorary faculty at the Durrell Centre at Corfu (Greece). At present she holds the Aruna Asaf Ali Chair at the University of Delhi. She has published several collections of poems and many critical books. While her latest co-edited volume is Speaking For Herself: An Anthology of Asian Women’s Writings (Penguin India), she has also recently published Poems Come Home (HarperCollins) & Rowing Together (Rajkamal), bilingual books of poems with Gulzar and a fellow Hindi poet, Savita Singh. She has been the Guest Editor of several journals in India and abroad, including Crossing Over (University of Hawaii), “Muse India” (Indian Literatures) and “Margaret Lawrence Review”.
Very touching poem, a pen could express the real feeling…I got through this poem.congrats to dear poet!