055. Loyalty Poem by Praveen Kumar Title Golden Wonder

When I heard how her world, shattered,
When I learnt how her life, wrecked,
A promising future, sheared to shreds,
So shocked was I, I began to sink,
And world at large lost sense for me;
I wanted to know more three years since,
But blindfold I was, alas, dark all round,
And found light in soul fast losing shine,
Without me aware, tears rolled from eyes.

Most sensible, sincere, sweet flower she is,
Gentle in heart, simple, fragrant for all;
She hurts none, bears odds of all worlds,
Selfless to the core; sacrifice, her mark,
No jealous or ill will roamed near her;
She soon gave her soul in love to a man –
Married by then and inappropriate in age;
Caught unaware, she struggled to come out,
But, alas, as she fought, it held her tight.

Kind as she is, she resolved to not harm
The pristine bond of marriage of her man,
And drag other lives to disorder and grief;
How deep her man, she knew, loved her,
Keeping him at bay was most painful task;
She hid her pains and sheared her bond
With soul-wrenching pain consuming her;
True as her love, she vowed from soul –
She never give herself to any other man.

Nubile as she was, suitors sieged her,
Parents put pressures to choose from them,
Doctors, engineers and post-graduates all
From apt families of name and honours;
She refused outright to consider any,
And faced the wrath of all in her home;
Parents she loved squeezed her hard,
And threatened of savaging name and life
Of the man of her life, for whom she lived.

The threat truly worked, and she lost her will,
She begged for time to choose right man,
Lest her man harmed, though she sank to hell;
Shattered was her soul, crushed was her life,
She planned her course for a wretched life,
Two thousand miles far from kith and kin,
Who unkindly forced her to horrendous hell,
Though in a marriage that helps in the task,
So no harm ever comes to her dear man.

Ignored she her past, ignored all future,
Ignored reputation built on sound ground,
She ignored dear parents, who destroyed her,
And a flourishing life that beckoned her,
Above all, her loyalty to the man of her life,
To protect him from threats of cruel parents,
And left to a far land with a helpful man,
And married him there to satisfy parents,
So, no more those parents harm her man.

With eyes shut, life ruined, she faced hell,
All dark, she found, in midst of new life,
Shed hidden tears while marriage enthused,
And resignedly threw life to ritual wolves,
Finding no way to save from what came;
She felt herself soiled, unfit for her man,
Nor could she relegate him to oblivion;
Day and night, all time, in his thoughts,
Found she hard to settle to new role.

Sincere as she is, simple, sweet in soul,
She sacrificed self to mould married life,
And struggled she hard to cooperate in all;
But differences over time tore married life,
Yet struggled her best to keep life in track;
Pregnant she became, it hit her as a bolt,
She thought it disloyalty to her soul-mate;
Hated this fall, she eliminated the risk
In perfect silence while in native place.

In three years since she lived in marriage,
The fabric of bond tore to irreparable shreds,
Both separated in divorce on her consent;
Firm to not join parents back in native land,
She lived wretched life alone in distress
In the alien land without friends or help,
Just to go on to live remnant of her life;
She found no hope, no future anywhere,
Thought herself unfit, anyway, to her man.
In three years since she faced marriage,
When I heard how her world, shattered,
When I learnt how her life, wrecked,
A promising future, sheared to shreds,
Though knew not of divorce and her lonely life,
And how unsafely she did expose her life
To risks and hardships in an unknown land,
So shocked was I, I began to sink,
Without me aware, tears rolled from eyes.