You are stuffed like the teddy bear
sitting in the toy shop shelf.
In fragments a line returns to you
time and again
stealing into the haunted look in your eyes.
You stiffen
like an adolescent’s lips,
tight and straight,
rebelling against ancient wisdom.
Obstinate,
the line returns and breaks into your sleep
and persists like a tantreek’s chant
or the hair-raising howl of wolves.
It suffocates behind the closed windows
and returns time and again,
maybe, like a persistent bully
or even the patient wave
that breaks into that solid rock on the sea shore.
Painstakinly ,
you open memory, page by page,
your search
becomes meandering and maddening,
you try to gather the snatches
looking for the one missing link
that would exorcise the haunting line.
Photo Credit
Photo from the Microsoft Office Clipart Collection
Guest Author Bio
Dr Shruti Das
Dr Shruti Das is Associate professor English in the P.G. Department of English, Berhampur University in Odisha, India. She is a creative writer with poetry published Nationally and Internationally and also a literary critic, writing bilingually in English and her native tongue Odia. She has participated in many National and International Seminars on English language literature and Communication skills in India and abroad. As well, she has published a collection of poems named “A Daughter Speaks” and has been published in Anthologies like “Inspired Heart 2″ and “Scaling Heights”. She is sensitive to social issues, loves to travel and to dream. She loves animals.
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Thought provoking & insightful ,thanks for your concern for the predicament of an adolescent girl .
The lines evoke the memory of Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot with the only difference that there the characters were waiting for that undefinable Godot. Here the role has been reversed where the modern man has been haunted by that crisis of identity and has turned into a virtual Godot. A real thought provoking one…
I am impressed by the philosophy of the poem.
great poem. felt haunted myself
I enjoyed in reading in times.. and the times to come make your thoughts kindle others on this lines.. oh!! teddy bear… you are.. hunted..
I read the poem. I’ll read it again….
I enjoyed reading your poem. So proud of you. Please continue your writing.
Lovely! I identify with the quest of that line that you speak of.