Millions And Counting... Poem by Rajkumar Panthoiren

There was love when the night was sung
When the curtain fell and instincts they rode
The night passed without a ruffle or a turn.
Then the wait, hopeful anticipation and the sign
The hug to congratulate.
A mutual laughter fused in hushed transport
The cosmos must have smiled that moment!
For he and she
And the unborn!

But who was to know
There was already a will without a codicil
The judgement passed beforehand sans even one hearing
The deal finalized, one hand concealed in the back
Just in case.

"A girl it is" -
The baby's cries left the delivery room
The defeated whisper of the doom was passed on
What should have been a cackle of life
was nothing more than a crackle of clamor
for them.
He looked at her, she looked back the same
The concealed hand twitched
Neither he nor she moved a brow
The penalty had to be imposed.
Death was the sentence.

Better, more compassionate was the option
of abandonment.
Being her parents, had to go soft on her somehow, hadn't they?
She was their daughter after all!

The next day,
Wrapped lovingly in a polythene bag,
The daughter was found sleeping quietly
In the waste bin near the fish market
Among rotten fish parts discarded the day before.

The buzz of the flies her lullaby for a while
Not long before, she slipped a gasp of surrender
Those little lips froze for the last time.
Somewhere the sweeping waves of the sea of humanity receded once more
While nobody saw the tears of a dream snuffed,
of wings clipped way too soon.