Is Love Holy? Poem by Rm. Shanmugam Chettiar

A girl next door is the nectar
For a boy who has no one sweeter.
For her, none is absolute viewer.
So I loved her to my heart. Did she?
No clue she shed either,
As to her pouring me her nectar.
Yet I sat on wait
As would a crane at a strait,
For a tryst,
Which is not easy in a tiny village,
Where even a cough is news.
There were many to love her,
Her ma, her pa and her peers,
But none could be a match
Like me to kindle her itch.
Love is God so, of her I was mad.
Loving one is neither bad.
‘Love neigbours.’
‘Love across cast and creed.’
‘Plants and animals are also
Objects of love.’- all these
I learnt from scriptures and believed.
So loving her is right and a right too.
Close to winter, at sunset, one day,
I encountered her, alone, brisk in walk,
On a footpath leading to her door,
And waylaid her. ‘I love you dear’
A slap! An effect of her reflex act.
To put her to the shame for her ruthless act,
I showed her my left cheek,
Repeating ‘I love you’.
Another slap! She relented not.
Only consolation- I got her touch.
Her lotus fingers like betel tendrils
Cheered my cheeks and pained my jaws.
I went back straight, not to weep,
Not to revenge but to put on fire
All the scriptures and the teachings
That taught me in length about love,
And to proclaim my declaration,
‘Love every soul save a girl:
Love even a devil but not a girl.’
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