WHEN I MET DRAUPADI

A Vast wasteland
Reeking of blood and betrayal
A Sight of barrenness
Emptiness
Smell of swords stabbing love
Of gushing out blood
Queens and princesses losing all that they possessed
Pride, nobility, dharma, mere metaphors
Of past celebrations, memories, time that passed
Teasing, never to return
Smiles that curved, drinks shared, gulped
With promises of ties and bonds,
Never to be undone
In the middle stands a woman
Or a silhouette of one
A frail shadow of a palace
A tinge of love lost in conceit
She smiles at me
Without a glint of happiness
There are no lines of joy near her eyes or lips
But there are wrinkles
Eyelids drooping of tiredness
There is an epoch around her eyes
One that made her blind
And snatched away that tinge of love
Fearfully, I hold her hand, and she shows me around
We walk over ants devouring at corpses
Spread around like colourful marbles
We’re blinded by pyre fires ever burning
Red and orange rising from them towards the west
We look over broken wheels and arrows
And  broken promises and families
To a setting sun
What are you waiting for?
I ask her
For this sun to set
For this day to end
I’ve been waiting for years now.
When will your wait end?
She smiles at me, but stays mum
What happened here?
War, she whispers.
Its happening
And it will never end.