Poetry as Creativity & Catharsis
By
Jayshree Misra Tripathi
Jayshree Misra Tripathi has been a consultant, educator and examiner in English Language and Literature, for the Diploma of the International Baccalaureate Organisation. She worked in print media in the late 1970s and ’80s in India. Having lived in diverse cultures for over thirty years with her late husband, a career diplomat in the Indian Civil Service, her short fiction and narrative verse dwell upon journeys through the diaspora, highlighting women and their voices, and cross-cultural conversations.
In Retrospect ~ The Fashion Show at The Grand Hotel
Our vain egos succumb to
invitations for raising funds,
dining at luxurious hotels,
dressed in haute couture.
The guests smile for our smiles,
as we glide languidly on stage
to soft music, the sensual overtones
unmistakable. Almost sixty, I do feel silly
dressed as an Indian bride in gold
and red brocade, my hair styled,
with golden necklaces that weigh me down.
Then as I turn to walk off stage,
I catch his cynical smile, mocking.
As the music reaches a crescendo,
I flick and stretch a long strand of hair, curled
with a taut finger, ensuring stares
and sway my hips to the laughter.
Been there. Done that. Without a care!
I Wonder….
What will the person who finds me first
think, as I lie there on the ground,
in my favourite pink pyjamas, or a T shirt,
my hair an untidy mess, the braid undone?
Will the first arrival glance at me
or at the scribbles on my yellow note-pad?
Will the next one come with the ambulance
and have to declare me dead?
There I was reading in bed, propped up by
fluffy pillows, I yearned for some jasmine tea.
Was the chest pain the prelude to a heart attack?
Or did that splitting headache signal an aneurysm?
Life is so unfair. I want to look serene when I go.
But dead is dead.
