Happy Women’s Day to all!
Presenting two of my poems that perhaps represent the Same Side of the Coin:
The Sounding Board
When he hadn’t much else to do,
She’d be there for sure, he knew,
Eagerly waiting to take his call,
As if she had no other work at all.
“Hey I need to talk to you”
Was always his opening line,
And that would be her cue,
To know that all wasn’t fine.
Office politics, colleagues and salary raise
Were topics on which he’d go on for days.
All she had to do was, listen, listen, listen,
If she spoke in between, it caused friction.
Occasionally, she would also get the urge,
To call him, but when she was on the verge,
She’d remember all those earlier occasions,
When he rejected her calls with impatience.
Saying he had this, that or the other to do,
And about his “pressures”, had she no clue?
She would thus be silenced to rue her fate,
That had destined her to stand and wait …
What if she gets bored of being a sounding board?
And feels, continuing this way she could ill afford?
What if she chose one day to raise her voice?
And let him know that she too had a choice?
The Punching Bag
Rarely, when he was sober,
She was his sounding board,
Absorbing his angry words,
That plunged her like a sword.
Other times - most times,
She was his punching bag,
Absorbing the frequent blows
Of his misplaced fears, deep inferiority,
Unreasonable suspicion and insecurity,
That left permanent imprints
On her body – on her face,
Back, neck, shoulders and head;
Most of all on her bruised psyche.
Between the swinging punching bag
And the often mute sounding board,
Their children cowered and shuddered
As they saw the hanging Damocles Sword …
|
|
Comments on this Poem
|
Thank you so much Kingshuk and Kulbir for stopping by and your positive feedback on this poem! Much appreciate! Yes Kulbir, this feels like homecomin :)
|
|
|
|
Padmaja,
Welcome back , and thank you for the two pearls.
|
|
|
|
Lovely, Paddy............so well expressed. Reading your poem after a long time,
|
|
|
