Mine the anguish and glory of the cross borne
Of womanhood stamped upon my genderless soul
Driven to piece harmony from life’s broken whole
That suffers the million wounds by man sown.
Mine the pangs and labour under creation’s urge,
The glad sacrifice willed for the family’s hearth,
The debt of pain’s unshed tears that pleasure unearths,
The fierce thrills in sync with nature’s cyclical surge.
Mine the daring hunger for love’s ideal heavens
Woos man to bear the burden of its woes ingrained
And as brood and blood are swept to their fate ordained
Tyrannies of bittersweet longing joy unsettle.
Mine heart’s a faithful embrace of roles life assigns,
An ocean’s tenderness o’er intuitive depths;
In accord midst calm or storm with my kindred set
This vast sisterhood my earth’s stability defines.
Mine is the beauty robed in compassionate wisdom,
The strength of incantations of light’s hidden force,
As woman, conferred with the other half, complete, lone,
I whirl to my enigma’s own singular rhythms.
Through the call of the siren, the lure of the muse,
The alchemy of my being’s charm eternal,
Lies the treasure unique of a self-giving total
That in surrender’s abandon, its song renews.
Milan Bhardwaj is a prolific poet living in Silicon Valley. This poem was especially written for this Edition of the SEEMA Magazine.
