Back in Fifteen - Prose Poem

I

We lay awake under the stars

wishing the night wouldn’t end,

we never read the fortune that

was bound to tear us apart.

You looked so ecstatic

each time we were on the swings,

and every time our mothers called

I told you, “Love, will be back in fifteen”.

The tea parties, the dollhouse

the tiny make-up kit,

the early morning school sorrows,

and the afternoon sweet wanderings.

All would be soon forgotten,

is something we never dreamed of.

We only knew what we meant in playtime,

when we said, “Love, will be back in fifteen”.

II

Growing up was painful bliss,

although we were far apart.

Our memories remained a part of us,

when we parted with heavy hearts.

Settled in a strange town,

I knew not where to find someone

exactly like you or even close,

gave up and went astray.

You wrote thousands of letters

with a hope that I will return.

I was but long gone, away from

the shiny world to which you belonged.

III

One day I wrote to you,

“I am carrying a love child,

and I am extremely scared”,

and sent it with trembling hands.

You replied saying you had wedded

a handsome and caring man your age,

and you were carrying his strength, too

in your chaste and proud womb.

IV

I came to see you with the child

in my arms, pale and thin.

I couldn’t reach you or your child,

the fortress was so high!

Our kins mutilated my very soul,

and left me alone to cry.

Desolate and desperate I ran

with a barren heart and mind.

I fed my child the same milk

that you fed yours,

I brought him up with the same toil

with which you did yours.

Yet I sulk in the dark,

with pain unbound,

and you reign in a castle,

gay and profound.

V

I dip my pen in the ink,

and write to you “My love,

fifteen years and fifteen months

have passed since we’ve been apart”.

With hope of a change in the will

of kins and so called friends

in another fifteen lives, I write to you

“My love, will be back in fifteen”.

Explanation: This poem is a story of two women, who were best friends throughout their childhood. As they grew up, they fell apart owing to various constraints of life. One grew up to lead a conventional life, happily married, and praised by everyone for her completeness in life. The other ran into some unfortunate incidents, and found herself bearing a love child. While the conventional woman became a proud mother, and the baby was loved by all, the other woman was spurned by the society for her illegitimate child. The poem reflects on the difference of treatment that the two women get from society, even after having naturally gone through the same phases of womanhood.