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Mehtab Kaur, Maharani ... at Shalimar

A Poem by MICHELE GIBSON

 

 

For International Women's Week at sikhchic.com ... 

 

 

A great wife is still an offering

not so different from the dancing ones

I bear his children, I do not sing

and manage repose for lesser sums

*

I was frightened by his face

This man, a husband, disfigured thus

but stood obediently in place

and cursed my fate as most unjust

*

I came to know the Maharaja

a warrior, and a reverent soul

the battles for his Kingdom

would exact a princely toll

*

At a distance, through his laughter

cajoling with his company

or from the wings, his solemn banter,

grand pronouncements and decrees

*

I grew to love him, from a distance

and gained regard only if I dared

carried his children, voiced resistance

to the women that he shared

*

but none were quite so swift to sever

as Kaulan, lotus on the wind

her voice as soft as summer petals

as haunting as elemental sin

*

I saw his eye, the message sent,

her's cast freely like the dew

I am wife and Regent

but my heart was slashed in two

*

50 rupees for every height,

she was a bargain by any means

a voice to melt the court from sight

but every inch a chasm to me

*

I am the Queen, First wife to the King

I bear all that my role confides

but every time he hears her sing

the heart of a woman dies

 

 

March 13, 2010

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