The inner page story
K. Radhakumar *
'I will tell you a joke.'
'Come on! Try it', says my wife.
'A girl has been kidnapped,
Raped and then murdered
By three teenagers.'
'It's not funny!
A girl is dead.'
'Listen to the story first.
The whole story!
There was poetry throughout.'
'Your idea of a story or a poem -
That's very different from mine.
Yours is not a story at all.
Rather it is the description of an event
That has happened in our locality.
It has no universal feature
To seize the human conscience.
Such things just happen these days
And are reported in the TV news and the dailies.
I see no poetry
In the murder of an innocent girl.
This is not the desired end
Of a beautiful dream called life.'
'I agree it's an event
That has just happened in our locality.
Life's like that
And I don't find it interesting.
The telltale smell of today
Tells me
I had yesterdays
And I am moving into the unknown
Like the girl's.
Life, full of events and people
Has the same basic storyline.
Accepted or not, so it is.'
'You are my husband
And I am your wife.
We have four children.
Let the voice of the individual rise
And touch the core of human interest.
Let us not make our responses subjective;
Let us strive objectivity.
Why, you are a poet!
Liken the girl to a flower in spring
With fresh air bringing colour to her cheeks;
The girl dressed in virginal white
With green trees symbolizing spring in the background
And winter arriving untimely
With bees, three coal-black bees
Not born of women!
The innocent not only killed but murdered!
What a sight!
Can't you make it more interesting?'.
* Poem written by K. Radhakumar which was published at The Sangai Express
This poem was webcasted on September 10, 2018.
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