ENFORCED ISOLATION by Shernaz Wadia

An image has stayed on in my mind from a very young age…

There was this lady whom I used to see at her window every evening when I passed by her house. She looked the picture of loneliness. Much later I heard about a school friend who had been widowed very young and was now living a forlorn life adhering to the customs of her community. And one day when I saw a crow as described in the poem, somehow all these pictures came together and spilled out in this poem.

Enforced Isolation

by Shernaz Wadia

swamped by the darkness as it grew

cawing, from cable to cable he flew,

loathe to return to an empty nest

gloom framed the teary-eyed widow

as she stood at her lonesome window -

a still-life painting, tight-lipped

incidental pin-points on society’s map

she and her ilk, drained of life’s sap

live in forced seclusion

the crow still has the freedom of the sky;

consigned to living death, she must cry

in the eerie confines of her soul

not for her the colors of mirth and cheer,

only the grey of his ashes must she smear

on her youth, her passions, her desires

a walking tomb of crucified dreams

happiness throttled by inaudible screams

a Sati on traditions gruesome pyre!

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.

~If you are interested in seeing your poetry appear in this blog, or submitting a poem by a woman that has inspired you, please click here for submission guidelines. I greatly look forward to hearing from you!~

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