Armour 

 Among the passage of starch 
 and the broken bangles
 Still sunk in her wrists 
 her eyes open.
 Large eyes. Kohl dissipated
 because of the tears 
 No - her smile is 
 Enough… 
 Voices from the past :
 Swirling, racing, lacing 
 weaving in and out 
 Confusion. A frown 
 comes. 
 Vaguely, there is pain
 And then. 
 Screaming deafening
 Remembrance
 One choli. Two breasts 
 Why didn’t papa 
 Give me an armour ?
 Did God speak 
 Yesterday ?
 Was it Yamaraj who
 came to me ?
 Nudging across
 the murk
 Comes a Thought
 She whispers
 Two soft words trapped
 sizzling in the searing
 desert heat.
 The bulbous entities at the
 Foot of the whiteness
 Stir. Struggling. Again.
  ‘my brothers…’ Rising like the crackling
 khair fire every year
 comes the wai
 l Vomit from the bulbous
 entities throats 
 ‘Oh - Durga she’s lost…’ 

 The Thought grows
 Now nudging, licking, loving.
 Innocent. God’s gift to her.
 God ?
 Snapping back 
 The wail fills her ears
 Her heart - choking, bursting.
 no air now - only stifling, black
 suffocation
 And across the dim
 Humming of the hospital
 And in the heart of a
 Small neat courtyard
 Another wail - suppressed,
 Painful, constricting
 And presently - with the
 audience comprising no one
 The bitch heaves.
 Two perfect white puppies
 enter the world
 One single silver tear forms 
 in her eye
 In remembrance of
 a love that once was. 

Neha Sinha
 II English