DUTY-BOUND by Shernaz Wadia

I wrote this poem long after my beloved mother passed away…

Even as kids, my siblings and I saw her and knew her as the epitome of self-sacrifice. All she got in return after our wonderful dad died were problems and health issues: chronic, painful, debilitating arthritis being one of them. We, her children did what we could to make life easier for her but our mother was always too worried about 'society'.

If there is one lesson we all learned from her example it was not to lose ourselves to the extent she (and even her younger sister) had done in their ‘addiction’ to put others before themselves. We know she understands and blesses us from wherever she is.

Duty-bound

by Shernaz Wadia

duty-bound to a fault

parents and siblings,

husband and in-laws,

children and friends ~

their priorities

a desert storm that

tossed and twirled

whirled and swirled

entombed self-love

duty’s dunes above

she plunged headlong  

and duty, like maggots

in a dank grave

feasted lifelong

on reams and reams

of her secret dreams

she dunked herself

flesh, bone and sinew

and duty, like an ogre 

merciless, unremitting

chomped and chewed

her leisure, passions, self-care

his daily toothsome fare

duty-bound to a fault

aspirations skeletal

but spirit indomitable

epitome of altruism

she bequeathed a legacy

to replicate which is lunacy

Shernaz Wadia is a retired primary school teacher, and lives in Pune, India. Her articles, short stories and poems have been widely published in web journals and anthologies. She has published ‘Whispers of the Soul’, a collection of poems and “Tapestry Poetry” – a genre of poetry, developed by her and Israeli poet Avril Meallem. More about this form can be read here.  

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