Resurrection! Poem by Rajendran Muthiah

He was hurt at the love-front, when she said,
" I hate you", for his talking to a fair maid.
"Has Corona contracted you? ", he asked her.
"If you speak more, you'll be in trouble", she replied.
Those words put him out of his usual humour,
except when he was teaching in the class.
When he came to see her by chance,
she was taciturn or turned her head away.
When some colleagues cut jokes involving them both
they offered constrained smiles but betrayed not
the strained relationship between them.
When they were alone, stoic silence prevailed.

When she was suffering from fever and cough,
some health workers found her tested positive for Covid,
No one dared to accompany her to the clinic.
Her family members too shut the door behind.
He went along with her to the clinic, gave her needs,
paid the costs for the treatment and when she was cured,
she took her by a taxi and dropped at her house.
No word he spoke, but she shed tears in torrents!
"God bless you ", he whispered.
"No. Wipe out my tears by thy hands", she wept.
"O.K. Are you alright now? ", he queried andleft.
He cut jokes and performed actions in the class again.
"Oh, there is a resurrection! ", one student commented.
"Someone could have proposed love to our grandpa",
another student replied curtly and made him laugh aloud.