THE DOOM OF SILENCE

Dear child, we say, when we marry off
our daughters, forget us, forget your thus
far life, forget your till-this-moment home
and adopt his parents, his siblings, and call
his house your own, in short we wash our hands
off you, and we don't want to hear the other side
news--only births and deaths and marriages
so that we may bless or console as suits the ocassion
in short adopt and practise' the mantra of silence.'
My daughter did,
so we did not know
when he pricked her nose with a pin
attempting to punch a hole for a nosering
when he scorched her tender skin
with a burning cigarette butt
burning weal marks into her covered body
when he threatened to crush the skull
of my grandkids ,Krishna and Sri Rama
driving his Maruti purposefully
against the forward standing tree
when he stole her jewellery
and pawned it for money
to play rummy at the country club
when he kept asking us for perennial
dowry, ,he left our daughter's bed
for other women sex, so that when
he knocked late at her door step
she let him in and when he offered
her hair to the Lord of Thirupathi ,
my daughter bore it all in silence
and the day he planned an en masse suicide
she opened her mouth only to swallow
whatever it was he had mixed
in the almond flavoured milk.
He survived with the two kids and
my daughter died
carrying her silence full circle.

Sivakami Velliangiri







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