OUT ALONE

(Deepti Naval)

 She stood at one end of veranda

 A naked bulb glowed

 At the other end

 Staining the dark floor

 With dull yellow light

 Beyond the empty ward

 Dragged echoes of the autumn night

 From pillar to pillar

 In severe silence

 Moved brilliant shadows

 Out alone in the cold, she stood

 Night after night

 Fighting her demons

 Her body frail and brittle

 Flapped life-like

 On two glass feet

 The torched face broken

 Then tacked together, so bluntly

 The ridged joints showed

 Hounded eyes that did not blink

 Frozen in a deathlike glaze

 Her fragile spirit, splintered

 . . . These are not the features

 She was born with

 This is the face we gave her.