A woman

By-Dr Nunglekpam Premi Devi
Independent Scholar

Aged with her time; she sits crawling down;
Wrinkle and wrinkle over and over her face adoring;
Her arms so flapping hanging down losing in the air;
Soft and wrinkle, she beats her body temple lose;
Her feet old and cranky; strong and struggling;
Her hands weak and fingering pointing;
She loses her smiles amidst the air ‘ha ha ha’;
Her lips so murmuring softens with no boundaries;
She held her words vibrantly lower and dark empty;
Her mouth a shallow cave with springs on;
Yeah! She’s beautiful; she’s a woman of nineties;
Her teeth show no mercy, she cracks no stone.

Her ‘enaphi’ small and dried, up she held within;
Her bosoms so cold, cover with those silky patterns;
She tightens up high her ‘phanek’ upon her breast;
Her earring hard gold piece solid hanging down loosely;
She manages her hairs’ bun now and again;
Round and round she did that, folding hair bun;
Her tucked ‘takhet lei’ a golden fascinating prize;
Ah! She walk tortoise holding her basket;
With those barely oversize chappal ‘phat phat phat’;
She sits and she talks little; her face so gloomy tired;
She walks long down the road, a mile distance;
Her head so brightly shining with her white grey hairs;
Holding her basket tucked beside her hip;
She speeded as she walks down to her home.

Vegetables! She sells in the market singjamei;
Evening her day, her basket with vegetables she hold lovingly;
‘si leikhro, si leikhro’ ‘ei yumda hanning le thengle’ she begged;
‘kaya gi no mabok’ ‘Mabok nungairibra? I ask her;
‘Nungairi ye ngbu nungairibra, udba yamna kuirene’;
She shows her live moment as she enquires me;
She forget her odd living, she forgets her poor;
She carries back her left over vegetables,
Holding her ‘pothon’ on the other hand, she walks hurriedly;
Ah! She’s a mother; she’s a grand-mother,
How lucky! She’s feeding some lives by her earning;
With all those happy faces, when she’s back home;
She buys ‘rice’ for a day with her selling;
O! The believer, she’s blesses ‘ebok’ to three life;
Her selling a golden price, a life saver.