Posted:
Poem 1:
An Unwanted Guest
By Sheena Row
Death,
I did not schedule this meeting
I did not commit to the sudden appointment
You came uninvited,
You are an unwanted guest
I wanted to kiss my mother on her forehead and
I wanted to hug my father's big old frame tonight
Can I muss up my little sister's hair
Can I keep my promise to carry my other sister on the palanquin
I had plans to see my bride in red,
I had plans to carry my babe over the threshold
I had dreams to make love to her all night
To have little cherubs just like her
My friends swore to me the best bachelor's party
I vowed in return to drink with them the whole damn night
I would rather not see the redness in the old man's eyes
I can't bear to feel the wetness on my mama's lashes
I would be elsewhere than listen to the silent hiccups of my siblings
I would rather kiss, than see the tears on my lover's cheeks
Death!
I don't want you in my date book
I don't want you on my calendar
I don't want to burn to cinders and be particles of dust
I don't want to mingled in the waters of the rivers and lakes
Death!
I don't want to be just a fading memory in people's hearts
I don't want to be a gracious host to you, an unwanted guest!!
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Poem 2:
Death
By Martha J. Eshelman
Death stands by his closet dressing.
He checks his date book. Twice.
Death dresses in black like a cat burglar,
slinks over the sill
shrinks from the ones with fear
strikes from behind.
Death puts on a red party dress
to dance and fling and lift
in a tango for those with ties.
He lets the refrain play twice.
Death dresses in wedding white
a proud approach with open arms
embraces the ones so weary
they run to meet him.
death wears a rainbow
a shimmering collage of times.
pick a strand, unravel, follow
reach its abrupt end.
Part 30A
Mr. Singh tried to calm his wife down, he took matters into his hand and called for a search party. Jassi went out with the troops to search the roads and call the hotels nearby.
Pia looked a stricken; she could see the disapproving looks of every one on her. Some were subtle, some not so subtle. Ranveer and Rano openly glared at her, while Mrs. Singh surreptitiously transmitted her displeasure.
She looked at her nails, once long and manicured nails have been chewed on and the cuticles looked red and swollen.
It was just like Karan to play these stupid games, he promised to marry her last night, and here he was giving a disappearing act. She wrinkled her nose in semi-disgust. If it wasn't for her promise from last night, to be nice to every one around her, she would have given a piece of her mind to Rano by now. She even ventured to ask Mrs. Singh if she could get her anything. The old lady gave her a surprised look, had declined Pia's offer of help.
Kirti and Kripa hung around with Rano and talked animatedly and ignored her completely. Pia felt so out of place and wondered if she will ever fit in with these folks.
When the long flat bed truck driven by Jassi stopped inside the compound wall, Pia ran to him with a smile.
"Jassi, Karan ka kuch pata chala?" her eyes searched constantly for Karan and his motorbike. She failed to notice the closed expression on Jassi's face. The other cars, trucks and motorbikes slowly came and stopped one after the other. This time, Pia noticed the ominous silence in the front yard, except for the doors slamming on the vehicles. She looked into Jassi's face, his normally cheerful visage was closed, somber and his eyes looked red. His turban was skewed a little on his head, and his clothing looked badly disheveled!
"Jassi, Karan kidhar hai?" Pia touched Jassi on his shoulder. He flinched sharply and turned away from her.
"Jassi, I am asking you a question, where is Karan?" Pia resorted to English. She held him by his arm and shook him until he turned to her in extreme anger.
"Pia, yeh sab tumare vajeh se hua, if it wasn't for you, he wouldn't have gone to the town, he wouldn't have had the accident" Jassi broke down crying.
"Jassi, which hospital is he in? I want to go and see him! Stop crying, he will be fine, he is tough, you know he doesn't like people fussing over him" Pia ignored his accusations, all she wanted to do was go and see Karan and take care of him.
From the corner of her eye she saw Santosh Singh, the elderly man who took care of Karan when he was young going to Mr. Singh and whispering something in his ear.
She turned to see Mr. Singh stiffening and turning away, he stumbled a little then wordlessly walked into the house. Pia folded her arms around herself and trembled, she didn't like what was going on. What the hell was going on? Was he hurt badly, did they not find him yet? She followed Jassi and stood next to him as he sat on the footsteps in front of the large house, he buried his head in his knees, his shoulders shaking uncontrollably.
She noticed that people were stopping by the truck bed and peering over. She walked over like a zombie to the truck and stood on her tiptoes and leaned into the flatbed of the truck. She saw his large feet encased in the cowboy's shoes first. They were his favorite, he called them his dancing shoes to rope in beautiful girls. Her eyes traveled to the blue jeans that looked wet and murky and then to the red, checkered shirt – the same attire he wore when he came to see her at the disco.
Her heart started beating wildly, the eye twitching was back and she raised her hand to press on it tightly. The other eye stopped at the large chest and then the base of his brown neck. Her gaze returned to the chest, why wasn't his chest moving up and down? Why was he so still? She removed the hand on her eye quickly and looked at his face. The world started spinning around her fast, the sky seemed to be closing in and she fell into the pitch dark oblivion without a word.
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He looked at her tenderly, poor thing, she looked exhausted as she curled around him and slept like an angel. It was only five o'clock in the morning, he held her close and watched the morning light of the dawn playing on the rough cut diamonds of her hangings. Her long lashes curled and cast a shadow on her smooth cheeks. He gently pushed back the hair that covered her ears. He thought that he could never get tired of the sight in front of him.
He knew Maasi was going to give him hell for what happened, but for the life of him, he didn't feel sorry – it seemed he was more than a willing participant in the game that fate and destiny played yesterday. To hell with the pundit who told him in cryptic language that he did not have 'grihastu' stage in his future for some years. The God's man even dared to say that he would not live with his bride as a man and wife in the days to come. But now that he had Bani in his arms, even God wouldn't be able to separate them; she was his and his alone. Jai clenched his jaw determinedly, he would call Maasi and tell her that they are married and tell her to have a reception arranged grandly. His tension seemed to have passed on to her and she stirred in her sleep, burrowing her face into his chest further. The hair on his tickled her nose, and she sneezed delicately and woke up with a start.
He laughed softly, every thing about her was delicate, he slid his hand down her shoulder, her upper arm, her elbow, her forearm and finally to her long, slender fingers. He covered them with his large hand and enclosed them in his fist.
"Bani" he murmured against her ear.
The whisper sent warm waves through her body. "Bani, can we talk?" his other hand was traveling all over her body without any checks or balances.
"I am not stopping you!" She mumbled shyly.
"Bani, I want to say thank you for last two days, they were the best days in my entire life" Jai husked.
She stilled, her breath slowing considerably, it hurt her deeply that he was talking about the physical aspect when she wanted an emotional attachment from him. She withdrew from his proximity and curled into a ball involuntarily.
"Bani!" He pulled her back into his arms. "Bani, I know where your mind is going, and that's not what I mean!" His voice was stern and slightly shocked the way she jumped to conclusions.
"Bani, what I meant to say was that that I am very happy that we got married and we got close physically, but more than that, I am glad that you and I can communicate at a different level, without talking, I know what you are feeling, and I have reason to believe you know what's in my heart without me telling you." He shook her slightly, "even if you want to jump to conclusions some times" She bent her head with shame at that gentle dig.
"Bani, I wish we made a baby last night" he caressed her flat stomach until she shivered with the urge to wrap her arms around him. "I want to see your stomach grow fat with my child, I want to take care of you, spoil you like you never were. I want us to have our golden anniversary like Tatu and Nani." Jai had a dreamy look on his face. "But, I definitely want more than one child – may be two or three. What do you think?" He bent to kiss her upturned nose gently. He was making the plans too fast. He didn't wait for her to respond before changing the subject.
"We will make sure Pia and Rano get married to nice boys, what do you think of Tarun or Pushkar for Pia?" He questioned her.
"Isn't Tarun too old for her?" Bani bit her tongue as she realized what she said, Tarun was couple of years younger than Jai and Pia was only one year younger than her.
"Whoa! That hurt" He pretended to be hurt, but he was too arrogant and cocky and had too much of a thick skin to think that she meant it that way. "Pia needs some one who is strong and older than her. She is headstrong and will try to run roughshod with any one who is weaker than her" Jai was blunt.
"You don't even know her!" Bani was miffed that he would say all these things about her sister.
"I know her, because I have a sister just like her! Look what Jigyasa did to poor Adi" Jai retorted sharply.
"But Adi uncle loves her, he doesn't mind her being that way" Bani raised herself on her elbow to look at him.
"He does love her, but she on the other hand treats him like dirt, I have never seen anyone who is so henpecked in my life." He looked disgusted.
"Marriage is a partnership, you don't want to be too strong or too weak, if anything, you should be strong for your spouse, not against him or her, it's OK to be weak against him or her when it's needed" Bani said slowly.
"Looks like some one was listening to Tatu with their ears open" Jai chuckled. He loved hearing these things from her, she sounded exactly like a schoolmarm. He leaned to play a small kiss on her lips.
"Jai, Maasi kya bolegi? Mujhe dar lag rahi hai, aur Jigyasa didi, will they all be disappointed that we got married already?" Bani nibbled on her lips worriedly.
"We can keep it a secret for six more weeks and not tell them, get married again – give them a chance to prepare speeches, to get dressed up and to have all the proper functions and a Punjabi wedding" He hated lying to his maasi who took care of him since childhood, but he also didn't want to disappoint the family by forgoing the wedding they were planning for years.
"But Jai, I don't want to start our marriage with a lie" Bani sat on the bed and removed the hand that was holding her.
"Bani, I don't want to do that either, but may be I can tell Maasi and tell her to keep it a secret until we get married again."
"But what about my sisters?"
"It's getting too complicated" He combed his fingers through his hair.
"It's been two days since I talked to my sisters" Bani's expression turned woebegone. "I have never left them this long before, and I have only thought of them once when we got married, it's all your fault" Bani pushed at his chest with mock anger.
"I have that effect on females" He preened with mock pride.
"I didn't see you calling your family" She gave him a sidelong look.
He looked puzzled as a thought occurred to him, he hasn't heard his mobile ringing all day yesterday.
"Bani, where is my cell phone?"
"I put both of our phones in the drawer next to our bed yesterday before we went to the wedding and…" Bani remembered.
"And we changed our rooms" He completed her sentence.
"Let me call the bell boy to collect them from the other room" Jai took charge.
"It's only five thirty, they will still be sleeping!"
"You are right, we don't want to call them this early in the morning anyway, so what do you think we should do for the next couple of hours?"
She turned over on her stomach with her face in her palms and elbows resting on the bed. "Make the bed, clean the bathroom and pack our clothes?" Bani replied innocently, a little too innocently.
"I have a better idea" he flipped her over and covered her body swiftly with his. Then he remembered something, "Bani, I got something for you from Scotland, I meant to give it you last night, I forgot, a little witch distracted me last night" He smiled and slid off the bed to go and search his jacket for something. He came back with two velvet boxes. First, he gave her the faux emerald antique ring that Laura and Beth Maitland gave Bani in Scotland. She was touched with the gift. Then he handed her the other box. The box had a delicate platinum bracelet with several lucky charms dangling from it. A Saphire wishbone, an emerald clover, a ruby rabbit's foot, a diamond horseshoe and finally an ivory unicorn all attached to the delicate chain. She fell in love with it immediately.
Then her face drooped a little, she didn't have anything for him.
"Bani, kya hua? You don't like my gift?" Jai lifted her face. The jewelry storeowner had assured him, that any lady would be pleased with his purchase.
"No, it's not that!" She corrected him, "I love it, it's just that I don't have anything for you" she looked morose.
"You lie! Bani! You do have something I want badly!" He smiled with mischief. He leaned forward to whisper in her ear with explicit detail what he wanted from her and exacted his gift.
When they woke up again, it was 9:00 in the morning, Jai asked the bellboy to get their cell phones from the other room and saw that he had a lot of missed calls, and Bani had several missed calls as well. It seemed like some one needed to get hold of them fast.
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