ABANDONED
Subbuswami Krishnamurty
In those tall, tell-tale concrete cubicles,
I lived there young for a life of joy.
I worked, earned my living
My parents lived far away
But sure they got my dutiful DD’s
They wanted me to marry: the nod wasn’t given.
Days, years passed leaving me single.
Life became a lifeless bore.
To keep me busy in thought,
a companion was needed.
A man’s destiny rules over his other emotions
Unaware I spent my days singly, thus simply.
At last it happened on that pre-dawn.
A cry in the wilderness in the vast open,
Too faint, full of agony but sure a cry.
I woke up, rushed to the spot.
An abandoned child, shivering in the cold,
awaiting its benefactor to lift up, so to say.
The child demanded all pity
I cursed the producers for their perversion.
To the police station or to my room?
My predicament was soon overruled.
He grew in my arms to everyone’s surprise,
a legacy in my life, not to be alone any more.
Everyone thought to be sure, the child was my son.
How else otherwise when I never denied,
to silence the myriad mouths that muttered gossip.