Poona ma

Poona ma

 

Indeed

a rare breed

whom we need

to be freed

from mother

as being another

ensuring safety

to mother and baby

with no aids as of now

using burnt dungs of cow

under pitch darkness,

helping the process

a flickering weak wick

rolled from torn fabric

that makes me

to bend my knee

and head bowed

pay gratitude, owed

to her tribe so far all

only a minutely small,

came on sudden

with her son

as the child in arm

with her youthful charm

desolated by all

none as her own to call

escaping sure

vultures’ lure

for her flesh

life being mesh.

Refuge she pled

on the miseries ahead,

touched villagers a lot

gave they, her a plot

to make her shelter

and earn her bread and butter.

She took jobs menial

as her steps-initial

soon her skill and worth

as a midwife to childbirth

proved to be of value.

Needed the village her too.

In all deliveries in the village

in all her life she could manage

at a time many cases together

she handled without murmur.

 

Ah

Poona ma

an address, offbeat

but to us, sweet

transcended it

to her credit

all calls, we call

relating to all

with respect due

as their ages accrue,

Relationships demand

and as they command

knitting them close

where thus kinship grows

love, trust, they source

the moral binding force

to keep the society bonded

thus Indians stay blessed

as she was given recognition,

what is every woman’s mission

to mother at least a child

with joy of pride, wild..

Her the call

same by all

grandfather to sons.

over generations

the name as mother of her son

preferred men the option.

On her the story

thus goes my memory

as a witness

to the process

and as posted by elders

her skill being as of doctors

attending as an obstetrician

patients at critical condition

with leaf, roots from the proximity

broken pot and ash available free.

in return to her survive was a seer of rice

but love and gratitude was her price.

Thus I have seen her

cool calm composure

nursing my mother

when my siblings younger

took birth, worrying none

family preparing for the celebration.

with the flooded river, stormy night

no medicine to aid her fight.

the scenes awe me today

contrast to then my family’s fun and sway.

She did all her deliveries with a rare failure

no forceps to drag out, no cesarean torture.

Lived she her full life as Poona ma

to serve us, her services us now awe.

 

P K Routray

in the service of Lord