Empty Corridor Poem by Bharati Diggikar

Behind the crowded wings
an empty corridor swings
to stony backdoor steps

Into a desserted alley
where yellow sunbeams rally
- We are roaming there.

In green shadowy place
time is just a guess
no purpose, no haste

We- you and me
where you are non-me
closest to my heart

The foot-path unfurls
carpeted with red flowers
Blossoms of coral tree

Now we see this park
where a girl learns to walk
with plaster on one leg

Left, right, great!
This is a perfect gait
Her father trains her

She smiles and tweets
Songs of rains and sweets
Papa will you sing?

Not knowing to see where
we tiptoe from there
to the next lane

Midsummer noon stark
There's a window, dark
Hushed murder in air

A childless window, old
abandoned by her fold
To die in her in-laws' house

Killed for property, sure
gossip in the air
A ghastly lane this one..

We must leave, dear
I am white with fear
I want to tell you this

But you are not with me
in this haunted alley
I am left all alone

Where I am non-non-me
and no option to be
anything else than this

Trying to find way
Back where blossoms lay
Near that empty corridor.

- Bharati..