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Ledger of Karma
Every night she walks up the bridge
Up and down
Now that she has withered
Young men don’t solicit her anymore.
She has finally shut the door to her body
But that brings her little relief
Her soul forever bruised, is too hard to heal.
Her nights are free
The streets that were once insidious
Look vaguely mysterious now.
At midnight she sees men buying flowers for their wives
The very same men who once drowned her in their sighs.
She is a stripper, a prostitute, a fille de joie
Her life is the nightmare no one wishes to live.
Caressed by all
Loved by none,
She is pleasure
And lust
And guilt
And money
And sin
She is a transaction
The tag of an ‘easy woman’
And a heap of insults
Sit like a boil on her skin.
Born into poverty
Actually meant to be an angel
She was a regular girl
With regular dreams
The same as any girl has
To grow up as a princess
And find a Prince.
But no, she fell from grace
Her first job was to appeal to male gaze.
It was a job, that’s all
But one that left her completely mauled
Snatched her crown
Broke her wings
Now that her youth has deserted her
She has even forgotten what it is to dream
Apart from one little wish…..
She wants to visit the city of Banaras
The quaint place on the banks of the holy river
The city known for its fine warp and woof of silk thread
Also known as the repository of the complex threads of our fates and fortunes,
She wants to check her Ledger of Karma,
She is somehow sure that one wrong entry there
Ruined everything for her
On this terra-firma.
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