Kuruntokai 9

Tan like young mango leaf,
she plays Mother now.

Unworn blossom
shut away
all by itself in a pretty jar,
her body wilts.

Her man is from the cold seashore
where

blue lilies
rise on cane stalks
above green lily pads
in the black backwaters
with shoals of fish,

and, when it floods,
the dark flowers look
like the eyes
of women dipping in a pond.

She's too ashamed
to talk to us
about his cruelty;
so she chatters
to gloss it over.