Re: Princess of Delhi -- Unicorn

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Date Posted: 12:41:50 06/12/02 Wed
Author: Gemini
Author Host/IP: webcacheB10a.cache.pol.co.uk / 195.92.168.172
Subject: Re: Princess of Delhi
In reply to: Raphaela 's message, "Princess of Delhi" on 23:01:52 06/09/02 Sun

Hi Raphaela,
Even if one is busy it is not easy to pass your poetry by without commenting.
You have a great gift for description, I could hear the sounds on the street, feel the heat, choke on the dust.
Together with such poignancy, which makes the narrative worthwhile. A delight.
I am a little uneasy about the verse with Connaught Place in as it breaks concentration, which i am sure you intended, just a personal thing i'm impatient to get to the nitty !!

Gem.

>Princess of Delhi
>
>Strolling through the dusty streets
>Faded sari traipsing regally behind
>Ignorant of the mud splashed high
>Assaulted by the hot monsoon rains.
>
>From afar she looks like any other
>Perhaps a woman of leisure
>Enjoying a lazy Sunday afternoon
>Shopping in the Janpath bazaar.
>
>Seeking a moment�s welcome shade
>I rest under Connaught Place arches.
>The British had believed a market
>In the shape of a horseshoe to be lucky
>For shoppers and shopkeepers
>Perhaps there was something in that.
>Watching passively, I absorbed it all
>The variety of life in the circular streets.
>
>Her sudden movement caught my eye.
>She seemed young, perhaps very young
>Slight of build, loosely plaited hair
>A small bundle over her shoulder
>She darted in and out of busy crowds.
>
>At first the rickshaw drivers puzzled me
>They showed her no respect at all
>Almost knocking her down, chasing her
>As she frailly moved on with dignity.
>
>She seemed to avoid the local people
>But instead approached foreigners
>I wondered if she was perhaps a guide
>Offering to help them find their way.
>
>They too recoiled as if bitten
>By some evil venomous snake
>Rather than a helpless teenage girl
>Perhaps seeking their help.
>
>As she walked around the circle
>She came close to where I stood
>Then stepped forward and touched me
>Startled I turned to look at her.
>
>Now I understood the others� reactions
>I had been warned not to give to beggars
>�Will only encourage more� they had said
>But she grabbed my hand and gestured.
>She was not a �professional beggar�
>But clearly starving and desperate.
>
>I looked into her sad, empty eyes
>And saw death reflected back at me
>Mirrored by the eyes in that bundle
>Her dying baby for which she pleaded.
>
>Those people who had rejected her
>The baby, and all mankind, had eaten.
>Just left Neruli�s ice-cream parlour
>Gaily laughing, refreshed, bellies full.
>Spent more on one sundae ice-cream
>Than she had had all month for chapatti.
>
>I emptied the contents of my purse
>Her fragile palms tingling with hope
>Then I, not her, turned beggar
>For I pleaded with her to take shade
>And nurse her tiny infant
>Lest it not make it through the night.
>
>She looked at me with tear-streaked face
>Two mothers understanding the need.
>Her self respect once more intact
>The Princess of Delhi walked her streets.
>
>
>
>9 June 2002

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Replies:

Re: Princess of Delhi -- Raphaela, 13:02:39 06/12/02 Wed