By Dr Shalini Yadav
PROMPT — Who am I today?
Everyone hear her words
Speaking all the time
But I could listen her
Inside silence' poems..
Folks count her hours
Sleeping day and night
But I could observe her
Awakened eyes' dreams..
People notice her steps
Moving ahead with life
But I could feel her
Inside halted streams..
Worshippers relish her beauty
Blooming like a flower
But I could see her
Withered petals and leaves..
We started together and ended too
Trying to search her words' echo
In the lights' gloomy silence,
Passing through life's river
With those halted jiffies,
Counting the marks of her footsteps
On every path's turn,
Exerting to collect her withered petals
On the earth's surface...
Tired, scared, broken and silent
Keeping her inside weight
On my shoulders,
Revising the definition as a woman
Trying to assure me
That with glow and colours
Of all trees and flowers,
She will write a new chapter
Creating life again..
Dr Shalini Yadav holds a PhD in Post-colonial Literature and M. Phil in ELT from University of Rajasthan. She has been teaching for the past 15 years. Dr Yadav has participated and presented papers in many conferences and has edited and authored nine books. She has written and also reviewed a big number of scholarly research articles for various International refereed journals and edited volumes, and is a reviewer of various qualitative International journals from different countries. Dr Yadav's short stories and poems have been published in numerous peer-reviewed journals and anthologies. She is also a member of various virtual poetry societies and iSPELL India. Dr Yadav writes from Jaipur, Rajasthan, India.