{"id":3692,"date":"2015-11-02T15:52:27","date_gmt":"2015-11-02T10:22:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.indiauncut.com\/?p=3916"},"modified":"2015-11-02T15:52:27","modified_gmt":"2015-11-02T10:22:27","slug":"an-old-woman-grabs-hold-of-your-sleeve","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/indiauncut.com\/an-old-woman-grabs-hold-of-your-sleeve\/","title":{"rendered":"An Old Woman Grabs Hold Of Your Sleeve"},"content":{"rendered":"
For a couple of years, every Monday I’ve been posting a poem on Facebook, with the intent of demonstrating that good poetry is something that can speak to everyone, and need not be abstruse, self-indulgent writing that only a chosen few can engage with. Starting this week, I’m shifting this tradition to India Uncut. Here’s the Monday Poem for today:<\/p>\n
THE OLD WOMAN
\nby Arun Kolatkar<\/p>\n
An old woman grabs
\nhold of your sleeve
\nand tags along.<\/p>\n
She wants a fifty paise coin.
\nShe says she will take you
\nto the horseshoe shrine.<\/p>\n
You’ve seen it already.
\nShe hobbles along anyway
\nand tightens her grip on your shirt.<\/p>\n
She won’t let you go.
\nYou know how old women are.
\nThey stick to you like a burr.<\/p>\n
You turn around and face her
\nwith an air of finality.
\nYou want to end the farce.<\/p>\n
When you hear her say,
\n‘What else can an old woman do
\non hills as wretched as these?’<\/p>\n
You look right at the sky.
\nClear through the bullet holes
\nshe has for her eyes.<\/p>\n
And as you look on
\nthe cracks that begin around her eyes
\nspread beyond her skin.<\/p>\n
And the hills crack.
\nAnd the temples crack.
\nAnd the sky falls<\/p>\n
with a plateglass clatter
\naround the shatter proof crone
\nwho stands alone.<\/p>\n
And you are reduced
\nto so much small change
\nin her hand. <\/p>\n
*<\/p>\n