Two Women

Two Women

When two women share the space and time

myriad things are there. They collide, bruise,

accuse, sting, chide, fight for the right

over everything that they could call their own.

Especially a chair that belonged to grandma first, then inherited

by their respective moms in the gen-next,

and now the bone of contention between the two inheritors.

Mid-noon is the best time to confront;

Nothing to lose nothing to win,

and the shadows on the wall lean over , eager to join in

and take sides

One of two is always right. Nasty, adamant and sinister in her

rectitude. The other one furious because she cannot make her point.

How we the women carry in our brains museums of attitudes,

venom stored in vials, as if they were perfumes we bought from

Egyptian markets and saved for centuries.

Time the teacher and the healer stands witness to the life.

One day the bitterness goes

and the ripeness washes everything clean.

There is a taller wave that surmounts the petty storms,

and the women find the lost treasures hidden in the past,

those intangible things their parents had had taught,

the memories of love and sharing,

the things that never diminished.

The accumulated dust, once shaken off,

the laughter returns, clear and strong.

Sushama Karnik.

Kuldeep Singh

Very nice

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Françoise Dhulesia

I am always amazed by how you make a picture your very own world, and feel free to breathe it and add your personal vision to it, so naturally! To me, you are a very fine interpreter: you go beyond and behind the visible and like in music, your poem sounds like an invention, this technical word meaning a two-part counterpoint. Your written voice echoes the visual one and that is how this poem was born.

I absolutely loved the way your poetic voice aligned with the formal qualities of D.Rivera's painting, especially in the first half of the poem: indeed, the narrative on the fury and rivalry between the two women so well fits with the fracturing of the forms, thus emphasizing divergence in their perspectives and view points.

Right from the start, the reader enters the scene, like a third persona, a witness of one of these petty fights that too often happen between two women.

The poetess's wise mind brings the scene to a higher level, as if a distant observer of humankind's flaws. I love the expression " museums of attitude", like burdens women carry from one generation to the other.

The narrator is a fine connoisseur, a sage whose understanding of people's behaviour is not unknown to her.

And yes, as seen through Sushama's persective, the scene ends in love and laughter, peace restored.

A brilliant poem, the mirror of a poetess's mind, expressing as many multiple facets as Diego Rivera in his paintings.

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Edited

Sushama Karnik

Françoise Dhulesia I was thoroughly taken up by your expert commentary. I have saved many of your comments in the past. This will surely be added to those. Thank you so much Francoise.

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Steven Seymour

Brilliant!