The Little Girl by the Highway
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
She was found by the highway,
dumped like a rag .
Bloodied and mauled.
Stripped and flayed.
Bile rises to the throats,
they count her wounds.
But who will pick up the pieces..
of her dismembered soul?
Candy wrapper in her hair..
and dead dreams in the vacant eyes
"Where was my dad last night?" - they ask
"Why didn’t he hear my cries?"
Flashbulbs scream..
and the headlines are relayed.
Kinder than the world,
the vultures keep away.
They bury her five summers..
and her favourite doll.
Lowering her gently,
in the tiny hole.
Watching the new arrival ,
the dead die yet again .
Screaming, they ask aloud,
is this how the Angels are slain?
dumped like a rag .
Bloodied and mauled.
Stripped and flayed.
Bile rises to the throats,
they count her wounds.
But who will pick up the pieces..
of her dismembered soul?
Candy wrapper in her hair..
and dead dreams in the vacant eyes
"Where was my dad last night?" - they ask
"Why didn’t he hear my cries?"
Flashbulbs scream..
and the headlines are relayed.
Kinder than the world,
the vultures keep away.
They bury her five summers..
and her favourite doll.
Lowering her gently,
in the tiny hole.
Watching the new arrival ,
the dead die yet again .
Screaming, they ask aloud,
is this how the Angels are slain?
© 2009 by Chhaya. All rights reserved
PS: the image is googled
38 comments:
Most poems come oozing out, dear. And this one was another poignant reminder to the fate of life.
Btw, did you notice a little girl cry on her iconic dad's funeral last night on TV? just wondering ...
@idlemind - fate of life? little kids abused and murdered is not 'fate' in my point of view.. its the most painful thing in the world. accepting it as fate is not something i wud recommend.
abt MJ's funeral, no i did not.
SEX-The root cause of problem.
The more u hide it, the more it will rebound.
Nothing to say about poem coz its subject matter is brutal :(
Once I went to an orphanage and believe me that was horrible
http://myboardmyblog.blogspot.com/2008/10/less-privileged.html
"perfect" chhaya
very smart lines
my fav is
"Kinder than the world,
the vultures keep away."
@ Tarun - i dont think "sex" is the root cause of the problem. it can’t be ‘bad’ bcz its something very natural.. having sex with ur partner or a consenting adult does not make u bad. its that demonic streak inside (I won’t say animal streak cz I hvnt heard too many cases where Animals raped another animal) some of us that makes this world too painful to live in.
how can someone be capable of hurting another human being, especially kids?
and I can understand how it must be in an orphanage... not that the kids in so called ‘perfect’ homes are always safe..
@Maya – thank you.
Oho! I should have said supressed SEX. Secondly if one is aware about sex ki beauty then one will not disrespect it like this :(
Right said Chhaya!
Its the most painful thing to happen to someone! But I dont see any way out of all this.. We can reprimand all this, but I wonder how can we stop all this!! :-(
I guess you took 'fate' as if it was inevitable. My sentence wasn't too forceful, I guess. The force that shapes the event can be destructive too ... so the destiny of life can be shaped well or even brutally vandalized.
To accept was not my intent, but to agree to the reality was. Brute force against any living being can't be acceptable, but one can't deny the loss of life that it causes.
Chhaya - My hair is standing on end after reading this...
mujhe to pahele is poem ko hindi me translate karna padega..... phir samajna padega fir me ku6 comment de paaunga........ :P :P :P :P :P
@idlemind -
yeah.. now i get the point :)
@What's in name - if only i knew how to stop this.. this is perhaps the darkest side of 'humanity'.. if i can use that word here.
@As the mind meanders - i know what u mean.. this poem left me gasping.. very painful to write..
@Crazyy - take ur time :)
I absolutely love the last four lines of the poem. It speaks volumes.
touched my heart ...very few people bother to write or even spare a thought about these issues ...
ohh god.......... chalo.. samaj me to aayi ye poem..
aksar aisa hota hai mere saath ki, poems to samajme aa jaate hai lekin unka jo theme hota hai.. bole to jo base hota hai..... jo writer is going to say through his poem wo samajna mushkil ho jaata hai, KHASH KAR JAB ME AISE POEMS PADHTA HUN..
is poem me dard hai, bahot saare baato per deep thinking kar sake wisi bahot baat hai... ek ek line me ku6 aisa hi chhupa huwa hai, jo bahot ku6 kahe jaata hai, bahot ku6 sochne par majboor kar jaata hai..
achha huwa ki ku6 edit nahi kiya.... koi jaruur hi nahi..
jo real thoughts hai wo hi is poem ko real bana rahe hai..
@Rachna - i knew u will like it.. was dying to hear from u..
miss u :)
@vicious - I have touched this topic earlier too.. read my - "Charred Dreams" and in a way - "The last bus"
tc
@crazyy - there is a lot of darkness inside human heart but there is nothing more demonic than hurting a child. This is so rampant in our society yet very few accept this fact that the kids get abused and hurt and sometimes murdered, not just by strangers but by their very own family members .. people they are brought up to trust.
my heart sinks when i think about it cz its so painful and almost impossible to get over these ghosts from past.
Dark yet soulful but like u wrote the reality in today's world is so horrifying that inspite of being intelligent creatures(we sure fool ourselves with that) we do not realize how we are in a path of self extinction
As I am reading this, I am instantly recalling your other poem "Charred dreams".
Okay, now I have finished reading this. This is hard to digest, isn't it? Dark, intense and very hurtful.
Writing this must have drained a lot out of you Chhaya. Keep such heartfelt lines flowing out! They inspire some great texts! Keep writing!!!
@Shamik - such is the soul of Man .. something that God has allegedly created in his own image.. and by mam i mean men AND women..
@Ajey (Brosreview) - yes, 'chared dreams' touched the same topic. It was indeed very painful to write it.. i am still stuck in that frame of mind, but i dont think i am done yet..
Chhaya this poem have made be cry from inside. No tears from eyes but from inside felt something heavy.. What incident made you write such a touching poem. It is sad that Kids too are not spared.. Parents should always have to be protecting their children..
chhaya, once again you have proved that you can say co much in so few words.....thousands of angels slain all over the world in this brutal fashion.....mauled and slain...the verses hit me very hard!
Wow thats some emotional brain dump, is it something that happened recently in India you are writing about??
Hi Chhaya
I can finally blog again now that my kids' regular visit is over.
Your poem about an anonymous little girl is so much more worthy and moving compared to the "tributes" to the late King of Pop (Jackson).
She died from another's evil hand rather than having a choice to kill herself through self-inflicted starvation and drugs (Jackson's choice).
I've done a new post on my blog http://gentleseas.blogspot.com/2009/07/balibo-movie-trailerpreview-released.html which touches on a similar theme - where the deaths of the "Balibo Five" (who a had a choice) are remembered more than 100,000 anonymous deaths of "natives".
Regards
Pete
a brave and amazing poem chhaya,
the souls of all the lost little
angels must have tapped your soul,
guiding you to write this poem.
@ Uday - its not inspired by something that happened recently. Child abuse is a something thats not limited to a time or to a region.. its there.. and its ugly...
@Its my life - yes, i agree
@inky - i cant exactly say that i am glad u felt the pain.. but sometimes words are not required.. u do understand how i feel, dont u?
@Pete - its strange to recall something from the Harry Potter series when we are talking about this... but there is a para about killing unicorns. hagrid sas "When you kill something as pure as a Unicorn, you lose a part of your soul." ... when someone hurts a child, there is no penance for that bcz its never the kid's fault. Kids are trusting by nature.. they are still untouched by the evil side of our so called 'grown-up' world
@Nadege - yes.. exactly.. i cud feel the pain .. its a bit difficult to explain.. may be thats why i ended up writing the poem..
Thank you for sharing your beautiful poem. This reminds us that we must be more vigilant and caring to prevent children and innocent girls from getting into trouble. Best regards.
Strong feelings expressed in poetry.... sure to arouse the same feelings in the readers. I admire your talent.
I haven't been reading you for a long time and after I read this poem today I could see what time does to a person's emotions as well as abilities. I used to like what you wrote earlier too. But this one falls in a wholly different category. You have matured tremendously, emotionally as well as a writer. [Of course, this could be an overstatement, given that it is the only one by you I have read in this site. Nonetheless, I will risk the statement, even if I have negative things to say later about your style in other contributions. :)] The poem hit me hard -- wizened old man though I am.
Let me try and explain what I think is so powerful about the poem. The power lies in the simplicity of your style. Aristotle had said: Truth is simple! When you have understood something perfectly, the expressions come out automatically. Indeed, this is why you wrote it in one go. You knew you had found the truth.
Such things have happened to me in the past too, during my research and teaching career. When I tried to make a point the first time, I would make things sound too hard and complicated. Two years later, I would be able to say it in two sentences, making it sound like a triviality.
I am almost sure that that you were carrying this thing within you for some time now. You might even have written about it in a complicated way elsewhere. But this time you have produced it in its most distilled form. Or so I believe.
Finally, I think Wuthering Heights is still with you.
Affectionately,
Deep-da
@Deep da - You always had a way to understand me.. and yes, Wuthering Heights is still with me. I dont think i can ever get over that book...
@Zero, Gopa - thank u ...
Very nice lines. The thoughts embedded in the lines from the heart are subtle, yet sublime.
Hi! i know u r busy with work and COTD but u have got me hooked to ur poems ... ahem .... i demand that u write a new one ... ahem ... pleaseeeee
Suddenly the last line puts everything in perspective..it is very powerful....indeed is this how the Angels are slain?
This is the second dark poem I read after going through your indiblogger nomination. In-the-face, disturbing, stark and sharp. "Flashbulbs scream" - you have a way of making people imagine what you want them to see.
Wow..loved this..LOVED IT!
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