The celebrations of colours and its absence in the life of a woman in an evocative verse by Saheli.

At the height of spring she had forever searched for
colours of a rainbow.
She borrowed, she begged, she stole.
Aquamarine pangs of the roaring sea,
Staring blues of the mighty streams,
Luscious red of rose petals fallen on temple stairs,
twined with the green leaves of sleepy bushes.
Blinding crimson of the morning sun raging
through the dark clouds of a starry night.

For she knew only white,
Hidden behind closed doors she smeared
her white drape, she was forced to wear at her husband’s pyre.
Borrowed hues,
they were not hers.
Yet her young palms
stared greedily to hold the colours sold at shops.
Her tears wished to scorch the pain bought at the widow’s stall,
her dreamy heart yearned to play
blending the season of colours
till her drape forgot its icy white shade.

Yet, she was told to refrain,
Her white was to be white
Not a colour to drop by the snowy ground laid bare for her.

©Saheli Mitra

Pix from Net.

Saheli Mitra

Saheli Mitra is a journalist, blogger and internationally published poet and author. She is co-partner and founder of Talespin Media. Her poems have been published in several national and international printed and online anthologies. Her debut novel Lost Words was an Amazon bestseller. Her shorts stories have featured in printed collections like “Half Baked Love” and “Knitted Narratives”. She primarily writes on women issues. She also runs her Nature Group called “To Trees with Love”.