Poetry

The Soldier’s Wife

She is wrapped in the purity of

a bone-white sari

forehead bare
hands disbangled

eyes emptied of sleep, darkened

with sooty half moons below

try a word with his unfading smile

hanged on the wall

a sea of despair trickles down

drenching the meanings of her past

and the hidden suns of the future.

The reminiscent voices of her lost soul
pound the breath of hope
suffocating the debris of

tragedy in the engulfing darkness, where

the hands of her deprivation

burry the last dawn

as the eternal sunset sets in.

Two kids!
one still at breast

the other at the kindergarten

haunted everyday with the question
“where’s your dad?”

on the weekend parents’ meet.

The government paltry sum, her bread,

body the space,

children the solace,

mirror the reflection of time

in the narrowness of sultry void.

The other day the nation
honoured her Paramveerachakra,
a perpetual barb of distinguished honour.

Fate’s artful hand
drew her down
into a wary future.

Today he’s a grand memory

a helmet-headed gun

on a tomb of his body and

she’s a half  drawn

distorted sketch of silence

abandoned by an invisible artist, who

contemplates an apocalyptic erasure.

                                                      ~Sreekanth Kopuri

                                                            Machilipatnam, India

3 Comments

  1. It’s a very emotional poem that touches both mind & heart with imagery depicting every minute detail about the soldier’s wife…What she goes through on losing her loving husband. The tiny tots she’ll have to look after as a single parent hurts the most. Her pain can be felt through the lines of the poem.The imagery leads to visual picturization. It’s an excellent poem bringing tears into our eyes

  2. Sreekanth Kopuri

    Thanks for your valuable feelings.

  3. beautifully and emotionally penned
    it wrings the heart and brings tears into the eyes when you think of the bereaved wife and children without a breadwinner in the family and a long long empty life to lead for years to come
    congrats for the wonderful imagery and heartrending emotions that have touched my heart and am sure of all those who have read it