Love In The Time Of Elections Poem by Mugdha Variyar

18 and eager,
She stood in the queue,
that wound around the countryside
to the village's polling booth.

That was when they met again,
recognizing each other from school,
which was but a shed by the fields,
where they had studied on the floor.

He smiled at her;
she felt a spark light inside.
as she cast her vote,
politics was far from her mind.

As the ink faded,
their romance grew bold;
While the village hoped for roads and water,
intimacy was all they could behold.

The new government had come,
But the rains skipped the town,
romance quenched their lives
but the wells had dried out.

As years passed,
their love had steadily grown,
but the land remained parched,
not a seed was sown.

Her father, a landlord,
had grown richer through felony,
His father, an indebted farmer,
had hung from a tree.

Despite the odds,
they finally wanted to be one;
If they had to be together
They would have to run.

When it was time to vote again
she was a changed woman,
Her mind bore no doubt,
her womb bore a son.

It was on that day,
when the polling had begun,
that she was asked who she would marry,
'A doctor, a lawyer, or the politician's son? '.

As she stood up to leave,
to vote and flee town,
she said she had made her choice,
'None of the above'.