A Labyrinth Of Deceit Poem by Chandini Jaswal

My greatest fear was realised,
When I saw the familiar uncertainty in my little one's eyes,
She hopped from her bus,

But today she didn't come to me to give a kiss,
Or excitedly narrate the ‘fun at school' I had missed.
She flung her bag on the bed,
Her cheeks were wet, and eyes were red.

She howled and cried,
"Why are we so dark and ugly, mother? "
I know her spirit had somewhere died.

Her angst ushered me to a similar memory lane,
Remnants of the rebukes, still somewhere pained.

They had said-
"To a good man, ‘you' could never be wed,
And a beautiful bride, ‘you' could never be made,
The colour of ‘your' skin is ‘too black',
And the character of ‘your kind' is ‘known' to be slack.
The behaviour of ‘your kind' is unruly,
‘You' deserve nothing but cruelty."

I shook away from the daze,
The permanence of human hatred, still had me amazed.

"Hush, hush darling" I replied,
"They don't mean it, forgive them" I lied.