FEMALE CHILD

In the interiors of
a remote village
under the blazing sun
an emaciated woman
gave birth to a skinny baby
it was a female baby.
She made her presence felt
with a loud cry
though skinny she was.
As she lay by the
side of her mother
searched her mother’s
breasts with its tender hands
reminding one of rose petals
and though she sucked
mother’s nipples for the elixir of mamma’s love
nothing came out of
the flat breasts.
Its father
the woman’s husband
burst out in anger
on hearing the incessant
cries of the baby
he took it forcibly
from the hapless mother
bundled it
carried it somewhere
whether he sold the
baby for peanuts to somebody
whether he threw it out
somewhere
perhaps in the nearby
river
or strangulated it
and buried somewhere
mother knew not
she heard the begging voice
of the new born from afar
like an oracle.
‘Mamma, Mamma’.
Not a drop of tear
came out of her eyes
they were quite dry
like a desert under
the scorching sun.