We Girls Are Like That Poem by Ravikumar C.P.

Kannada Poem by Pratibha Nandakumar
Translated by C.P. Ravikumar


We girls are like that,
Aren't we Usha?
We chat about a thousand things,
Without ever saying what we want to,
And what pain we endure!
All those shocking thoughts
That we keep compressed
Like sour dough in a plastic box.
When we can't take it any more
We open our mouths, only to babble.
Instead of the plain 'I love you'
We think of a hundred other ways,
None of which these boys seem to get;
And when the moment slips by,
We sob into our little hand kerchiefs.
Finally we get married to someone else
And we equate ourselves to tragedy queens
Expecting sympathy from one and all.
In our husbands' eyes we look for him,
Yet we carefully guard our secret.
By then our suppressed feelings
Have crystallized, never to bloom again.
In four more years
We put on a ton of weight
And give birth to four children.
And one day, out shopping for vegetables,
We meet him.
We become outraged and
Blame it all on him,
Yet outwardly we smile
And inquire about his wife and kids.
For, after all, isn't this her story too?
Yes Usha, we girls are like that...