By- Dr Nunglekpam Premi Devi
Independent Scholar
Leaves patting taap taap and taap!
Pleasing Fresh as monsoon rain showers;
Cold and chilling, rain drops patter and taping;
Dark and fuzzy, days’ becoming shorter;
Alone I stand weakly; alone I sit down aimlessly;
No dreams are counting: no days work is busy;
Cold and numb my hands, trembling bitter my feet;
I tried comforting warm my holy body,
With those entire one ply ‘phanek’ and ‘phi matek’;
Shaken as I step out in the breezy verandah;
Open and cold, drizzling rain scatters flashing;
Eagerly waiting for ‘his’ return back home late evening;
My body’s trembling, three months post natal period.
Never did I worry, cold and calmly I pretend;
The night’s too young, can’t sleep mesmerizing;
Captivating and bewitching, entrance door unlocked;
Hugging around my sleeping child I stayed up night long;
Eight o’clock, ten o’clock, twelve o’clock;
Where will he be? I puzzled hundreds
The ‘hour’ of the night is haunting me one after another;
Alone and afraid, I walked up and sit down,
Electric lights gone off too early, darker as blind outside;
‘Feeding and tending’ my whole night duty;
Every single minute I watched over again and in;
Every single sound I did trap hearing attentively;
Tick- tock tick- tock, three o’clock struck the clock;
Oh! No he wasn’t here, with a lantern in my hand;
I peep outside and stand cold.
Tried and exhausted, I give up waiting ‘him’,
Feeling sleepy, when its dimmer the cloudy sky;
Its three pass half minute, I heard banging steel gate;
I startled completeness and my veins blood flowing,
Looking outside, I saw a shadow coming towards in;
I tried brightening up the lantern and throws light brightly;
No one coming inside home; he isn’t home yet,
Open door remains quite still awhile,
I walk down the stairs and tried searching for;
No objects moved and no living swinging,
Ah! He was there lying, all wet and all muddy,
All drench and all whimpering with those low voices;
I heard ‘him’ but I fear ‘him’ not;
I stand still and I call him to eat dinner.
Angry as he busted, tangle as he stand up;
He fell down slipping thousands thump thump and thump;
Crazy as he to something, started throwing objects,
Flower pot and fire wood and grasses and plants he could reach;
Here and there scatter, broken earthen flower pots,
Courtyard a dumping ground in a minute,
Startled the baby, I tried putting him back to sleep;
I dare afraid to hit by; I walk and I caught hold him comfortably;
He fell down muddy as he throws cracking;
What a night I had to deal with? Faster my heart beats,
Swiftly I took cleaning up into the rain, before dawn;
It’s all a truth covered up, sweeping ‘shumang’.
