I Never Ever Miss You, Dear! Poem by Rajendran Muthiah

Losing my comrades in the gunfight
with the extremists in the North East of India,
I wended my way through the wooded hills,
day and night with weeping sores in my thighs;
sighted a church in a tribal hamlet,
entered, fainted and fell down on the floor.
Thoughts of the past sidled up to the fore of my mind.

When my kin are tillers, hers are ruthless killers.
Her near-ones are robbers and rustlers
but mine are eager-beavers.
We never knew, we were riven by religions too.
Diana sparked her heart with the fire
and towards me tantalizing looks she did dart.
She was in my blood and I was in her soul.

When her parents found a groom
who had the highest record of crimes in the area,
both of us had no courage to tell our parents
why we were dolorous and sleepless.
' I want to part in sorrow
by the sunset of tomorrow',
her lines forbode something serious.

I had a bottle of pesticide with me
to go along with her if she slumped down to the earth.
In the dusk she came, hugged and kissed me,
'Oh, buck me up for heaven's sake, my dear! , she said.
And we were wallowing on the floor.
'Pour this poison into my mouth and run off',
she murmured and gave me a bottle.

' No, my heavenly gift! I drink and shrink here.
You go home and get married', I mumbled.
The breeze which was rustling the fallen leaves,
changed into an autumnal wind blowing over
and we were rolled and rolled to the horizon of love.
The bottles being snatched away, we retreated to our homes.

To rip up the tentacles of caste
she became a nun and I soon wielded a gun of the army,
on the borders where the snow-covered trees
were shedding down drops of tears,
in the beaming Sun, recalling to my mind,
the tearful eyes of my dear Mercy.

When the warm drops of water fell on my face,
I opened my eyes and saw my Mercy in flowing tears.
I was lying on a cot beside her in her room.
'Wherever you go, there I follow', she whispered.
'I never ever miss you, Mercy,
in this world and the world to come', I broke down.
------