Lucretia, Again Poem by O Sudhir Janardhanan

the uneasiness does not leave
it replays uncomfortable screams within.
the lost innocence does never return
only a residual dull ache, that refuses to retreat.
some smiles are agony's attempt at cynicism
deep within, i have died
many times over again.

NOBODY


cries

over her battered body
ignominiously discarded
after their savage butchery.

the perpetrators,
brazenly hide away their crimes.
explain
away their injuries as hurt pride.

every night
a mother is raped
under the watchful eyes of the son.
the father
swats mistaken masochism
into a gleeful, impressionable one.

the first crime he commits
is against a woman;
gender he confuses
to be used and discarded, done.
the last crime that he committed
was not to kill a passion.
he raped the passion!

they await…

for the sentence to be commuted
knows the one that he committed,
will be pardoned
as the fallacies of
a growing boy.