"Bougainvillea"

Searingly Vivid!

Dedicated to Moon! You beautiful girl.

I have a girl in my class

She is dark, obese,

With the sprint of a ten-year-old,

She has dark, dark lips

Which she paints a bright shade of pink.

She reminds me of the bougainvillea,

In full bloom, riotous with colour,

With thick, dark, troublesome branches,

That welcome from a distance,

And hurt up close.

I glance at her often,

And make elaborate plans

Of someday marching up to her

And saying, are you really the sunshine that you look?

Doesn’t it hurt, when even the most

Well intentioned people,

Offer you spurious advice to thin down,

Curb your ways,

Speak clearly,

Look politely,

Without a sharp glint

In your wise eyes?

Are you asked to smile

Not with hopeless abandon,

But with charming pretence,

That would offer a dim allure,

Of an untamed beast

You keep in check?

Do you receive

Well-intentioned suggestions to

Tame your locks of hair,

Clip and tie them neatly?

Are you urged to bottle your questions?

Not to wage wars with ill-timed requests?

I look at you and wonder,

Do you heed these words at all?

I think you would say-

Have you ever heard a ghazal

Which filled you with happiness

And remembered it for long?

And while I look at you,

My thoughts lingering on your face,

You would laugh, with curious abandon,

And say- well, I am the red,

That cuts across vines,

And stains the heart underneath it.

I am the girl, complete in the garb,

Of others’ vehemence,

But mostly my own.

Published in Unbowed Muliebrity: The Womanhood, Vishwa Bharati Research Centre, pp 88-89, March 2021, ISBN: 978-93-89264-72-2.