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Writer's pictureChrysanthemum Chronicles

Six Yards of Simplicity by Nandita De nee Chatterjee


The smoke spirals up

The heat scars her face

Dark pigments blotching the tender skin

Oblivious, she labours on with a half-smile

Tossing dozens of 'rotis' around

Plump and just right.


Somewhere she's scraping the last morsels

Her wailing baby wants her lullaby

She'll hum him her stories of the night

The hard pavement is now deserted and imagination takes flight.


The path is long and dreary

Vicissitudes in life sundry

Balancing a pile of vessels

She drags her tired muscles

Destined to be a vassal.


Labouring through long days

Unskilled jobs at mines and construction sites

Covering her timidness with her ample veils

Nameless, faceless, she makes her way

Not a day when she fails in her sway.


Not a moment to ponder

Not a moment to complain

Never a moment to stop

Stare at her flushed face.


Never did she think

Beyond the food platter

Never did she demand

A role in any other matter.

Ignored and abused

Servile she stood

Bowing in deference to patriarchy

Shielding her anxiety in her kohl darkly.


Desires covered firmly

Saree draped over her temple tightly

She wilts under the pressure

But neither praise nor poesies

Await her except in her fancies.


Yet she's the fountainhead

Of happiness and health

She's the last word

For the toddler and the youngster

The home they return to

The colour of a new day

The shimmer on a moonless night.

So what if no one ever said so!



Nandita De nee Chatterjee is a Writer/freelance journalist/housewife. Formerly with Economic Times. Cover stories and Feature Writer with Statesman, Illustrated Weekly, Economic Times, Telegraph, Times of India, Femina, Filmfare, Germany Today, Voix Meets Mode, UK, Frontier Weekly, Namaste Ink, Setu magazine, US, Innsaei International Journal, Chrysanthemum Chronicles International Blogazine, Literatureslight Magazine, Global United Renaissance magazine. Co Author: Big Bang of Non-Fiction, Life in Reverse; 30 Best Poets; Sea; Coffee & Echos; Wrapped Up Feelings; Poetry Planet's Christmas in my Heart , Moonlight; ALS's Kaleidoscope of Asia & Bilingual Anthology of Poems; Poetry Planet's Writers' Haven; Rewrite the Stars; Love Thy Mother; The Real Hero; Heart of a Poet by Inner Child Press anthologies; Ashes; Arising From the Dust; Striving for Survival & An Indian Summer in Verses by Plethora Blogazine (now Chrysanthemum Chronicles); Poetry Planet's Lockdown Diaries and Born to Dream Winner's Anthology, Gems II and Gems III by World Pictorial Poetry & Art Forum, Poetry: Best of 2020 by Inner Child Press USA. She has been chosen as the #womenpoet for the month of March by Cc.


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