Chameleon Woman Poem by kp. shashidharan

Attired in garish but torn sari
Concealing peeping out
Bulging, soft voluptuous
Curves of youth
Stood at the traffic signal
A street woman with babies
Selling:
Red, green, yellow balloons!

Screaming twin babies
One boy, the other girl
Clutching her firmly
One, on the left
The other on the right
Engaged in competition
Sucking mother’s milk
From right at the source!

A chameleon woman she is
Changes appearance often!
Before the earliest bird
Chirrups at the day break
Holding babies close to bosom
With a big sack on her back
She searches rags, waste heaps
Something that fetches value!

Challenging pigs, dogs, cats, cattle
Rats and folks of her kind
In the game she has been good at!
Managing thugs who allocate
Streets for begging
And for living for a price
Of course god is kind in his bounty!

She lives her life in love
Beneath a flyover in Delhi
Destined, born on the street
Cursed for others but blessed for her
She has no quarrel with the almighty
To be blossomed as a street girl
Pretty, colourful, alluring like a flower
Her hassles are with the all mighty!