Poetry

Kunti-The Mother

I was young and playful

true to my sunny gardens

when they drew the veil on me.

Didn’t know when my stomach grew

when I birthed you it was all pain

I wanted to play with you,

to keep you secretly with my toys.

They called you shame,

put you in a wicker basket

with jewels and my dreams

and floated you away.

I had three more like you.

They rode my lap

in the day and the night as

my breasts wept for you.

I packed away my tears

as only warrior’s mothers do

and demanded your blood

for the milk that you never drew.

Mother – the word mocked me.

I stood on the banks of duty

steeped in meanness and greed.

I asked you to bleed my child,

and cupped my palms for more.

The bugle, the arrows,

the war, all walked

single file before me.

My other three

I caressed every night

as your blood drenched my heart

your unheard cries

rang in my ears

nightly I fed my brood.

Your hungry mouth

opened to me

all my love seemed untrue.

I have seen my lovers go

I have witnessed kingdoms go

I have seen my baby go

caught in the teeth of destiny

today I see my child’s blood flow.

I walk over dead bodies,

paddle over puddles of blood

I look for you, my warrior

to pull you out of the other world,

to hold you close to my heart

and wash your illegitimacy on my soul.

                                                                                ~Dr. Shruti Das

                                                                                      Brahmapur, Odisha, India

One Comment

  1. PATHOS- at its full description!

    Horror – filled battlefield
    Full of dead bodies
    Strewn here and there
    One was profusely bleeding
    About to breathe his last.

    Knowing him to be
    The illegitimate child
    Born to her ( Kunti ) and Surya the Sun God
    Through invoking a prayer early
    As per the boon
    Offered by a sage
    Kunti the unwed mother now laments
    And offers her SOUL
    To cleanse KARNA
    Of his ILLEGITIMACY!