by Sampurna Chakraborty
She rose up from the ashes,
Anointed and clean.
Life’s eternal glory unfurled,
Breathed and set out to dream.
She sniffed the rapid air,
And walked the burning land,
She looked up and sighed,
At the tainted hues of the sky.
She knelt upon the barren land,
And embraced its dearth with all her might.
A sardonic gleam flickered in her eyes
As wounded thoughts scurried across her ravaged mind.
A man in white, with his pristine smile,
Beat her body, bled her soul.
A man in white, with his pristine smile,
Chained her to the life of eternal woe.
He quenched her dreams, dwindled her to ashes,
Scattered her tattered body into the embers.
Tears stained her cheeks, blood traced her lips,
As her mind conjured a dulcet symphony of liberation.
In that fire she burnt for hours long
Until her skin shed all the bruises she wore.
And thence,
She rose up from the ashes, anointed and clean.
And broke out in laughter at the echo of her former chains.
Sampurna Chakraborty is a student of literature, a reader, and a dreamer. Her poetry is the expression of her suppression. Her heart beats to the rhythm of love and joy.