Women Of Substance 02 - A Life From The Shards Poem by Unnikrishnan Sivasankara Menon

She wanted
to be an IPS Officer.
A beloved daughter
Of caring parents
And the little sister
Of a loving brother,
She lived in a close family
Had a pleasant childhood.

While still in college
Doing her undergraduate
She fell in love.
When her parents objected
She eloped with her lover.
A son was born to her
While he was still an infant, her lover
Abandoned them and left,
Was never heard of again,
Her life shorn to shards.

At the age of nineteen
With no income
No place to live
Alone in the world
With her little child
She had to pick up
her life from scratches.

They had to live
In the bus shelters
Railroad stations
And roadsides,
In order to ward off
Uninvited nocturnal guests
She changed her attire
And lived as a man
With his little ‘brother',
Always doing odd jobs
And tiny businesses
To earn the daily bread.
Not everyday did they
Have the luxury of food,
Many a days, very often,
she and her little one
Slept in empty stomach.

But that didn't dampen her will
Amidst her struggle to live
With her ‘brother' by her side,
Completed her graduation
Secured a job in the government
As a Civil Police Officer.

Now she has a roof
Over her head,
Three meals a day
For her little son,
For the first time ever
he goes to school,
A school of his choice.

She did not stop at that,
Hard work, day and night
She is now appointed
A Police Sub Inspector,
A wee short of her dream
IPS Officer's post.

Another woman
Of Substance,
A life stitched together
From the shards.