On a moonlit night, poetry slithered out of her old moth-eaten notebooks like a golden winged python. She ran away in fright, stumbled and fell down a
deck of stairs. Poetry slithered down following her and rose up to her height,
to the height of rooftop, to the height of sky, to infinite height like Vamana.
It had no venomous teeth but a wide blood red mouth deep like a rustic stone-age cave. Renuka crawled on the floor until the wall stopped her
and then the python fell down with a thud, advancing towards her with its mouth
opened wide. It started at her long finger nails with worn out nail-polish,
cracked heals, her legs covered in soft black hair and her loosely draped sari,
her infinite woods, the river, the mother hood, her under toned sluggish belly adorned with white stretch marks, her breasts that glowed in forgotten glory,
the thickly slender arms, the thorn pricked heart, her honey coloured face with
an upturn pointed nose and long lashed black eyes, blue eyes, brown eyes, red
eyes, face without eyes, nose and lips.., the python did not omit anything.
Slowly, following the rhythm of an invincible drum from the sacred woods, it
swallowed her. Renuka howled, wallowed and screamed for help. It didn’t come.
She suffocated as the python’s narrow lines pushed her and turned her around,
blinded her absorbing the last ray of hope like a demonic black hole. She tried
to latch her nails in the rosy guts to prevent further fall, but it slipped with
filthy mucus. The python took a sudden flight flashing its mighty golden wings
and Renuka slipped down, fell head first into stars, naked like a new born baby
with a blood clotted bellybutton. She tried to walk, strutted, stumbled and
fell many times, gave up and sat back unsettled, agitated. The sharp pinching
pain at sole of her feet made her howl in agony like a wounded wolf, and it
resonated within the golden walls of python. Synchronizing with her
uncouth howls came the angelic laughter of her twins, the two little snow balls
of happiness, as from another world. Renuka wanted nothing but to hold them
close to her bosom and feed them light. There was plenty of light here and she
herself was light. There were no moon or sun but stars, many of them. No
brighter ones, no constellations, but stars like in that black and white polka
dotted sari Vaseer bought her. She laid there as cold numbness grew up her
legs, spreading painfully to every last cell. The tip of hair twirled into an
unknown alphabet of an unknown language, just as her eyes went numb with sleep.
“We were so happy. I don’t know how to live
without her. She was my everything. Prakash, I can’t even face my children.
What should I tell them? How can I ask them to accept something even I can’t
accept myself? I can still feel her cold, numb, bluish body in my arms! I was
too late. We searched everywhere. Why would she ever go to that godforsaken
place. What God did she search for in that forgotten temple?”, his voice was
trembling, so was he. The violet shirt he wore screamed out how thin he became
in two months. His lively eyes sank in an eternal melancholy that formed dark
circled around it which was rather more visible as he was pale with agony.
“Vaseer, it has been two months. You have to
move on. Your children need you. You have been repeating the same things for
over an hour and I have nothing more to tell. I don’t know how to console you
Vaseer. I am going to book an appointment with a psychiatrist as soon as
possible. You cannot go on like this. You should come and stay with us for the
time being. I will call the kids from school. Pack some dresses when I come
back. Ammu has been telling me this for a long time. Get up, Vaseer”
It was a difficult situation for Prakash to
handle. The beauty of their love had even made him jealous. And then on one
fine evening, she died of a snake bite. He didn’t wait for a reply and walked
out. Why would Renuka go to such a place alone. To sit alone? No. Why would she
want to sit alone? Or, did she go to meet someone in secret? Achee! Prakash
slapped himself. He knew Renuka better than that. Just as Prakash passed the
varenda and unlocked his car, something slithered past him. Prakash moved back in
shock.
An enormous golden winged python crawled
majestically up the mango tree in the yard. The tip of its tale, that hung down
was knotted into some unknown alphabet of some unknown language. Bowing its
head, it prepared to spread its wings. Like a brutish fairy, it spread its
wings that was larger than horizon and with a sudden sweep, took its flight.
Wonder struck,
