Daisy Poem by Prabhakar Subramaniam

I remembered her as one
Who did not want to be a nun
With other classmates
I had gone to her house
To gather her for the school excursion
As her mother braided her long curly hair
Which I looked at with a stab of envy
She kept protesting
She didn't want to have her head tonsured
And not be able to wear flowers, bands and ribbons
I heard her object to a vow
Taken without her consent
Even if it had been to bring her back
From the brink of death
During a mysterious fever
That looked like a possession
And made her shiver violently
And recite maths formulae
She never knew she knew,
The next time I saw her
Was several years later
At the mofussil bus depot
She had a child in her arms
Both were crying
It was obviously her husband
Looking very drunk and cross
Holding her by her hair
And raining blows on her.