WINNING POEMS: poetry book

MY WIFE-MY TEACHER

MY WIFE-MY TEACHER
[Bereaved husband reminisces about wife and thereby understands her more.]


I am a teacher myself
But was a student too.
Of teachers outside the school
Today I do tell you.

From my mother I did learn
Serving all while loving.
From my father I imbibed
High thinking, plain living.

Though from my parents I did
Many virtues imbue,
It was verily my wife
Who made me a man true.

East exists because of West,
North is, because, South is;
Similarly, it is true,
Because of her he is.

Feelings that a woman does
For the husband harbour
Are conveyed often not in
Words but behaviour.


Even in death, my dear wife,
Taught me a lesson great;
Smilingly she bore all pain,
Saying to Lord her grace.

Though with me she is no more
She is always in thought;
Through those thoughts now I know why
She was sometimes distraught.

Why do women shout or cry
Or are melancholic?
Why one day, smiling, playful,
Next day, they are so sick?

Why minor things for men are,
For women, crucial?
And those, important to men,
For them not so real?

The above questions remain
Often without a clue.
In the daily rigmarole,
Too busy are the two.

They do not have time to think
What does ail the partner;
What are his or her hopes and
What worries him or her.

They simply go on living
Till they are drawn apart;
For the bereaved, a new life,
Different one does start.

Husband is often baffled
By wifely taunt and tear.
But the reasons for these are
Quite later to him clear.

In moments of solitude,
Thinking of days gone by,
He recalls their discussions,
What they did talk and why.

Ruminating in his mind
All the events of yore,
Newer meaning he discerns
In what was so obscure.

Enigma, often, is wife,
Husband hardly knows her;
But after she is no more,
He knows her far better.

In the end I must say this
Many taught me in life;
Yet my greatest teacher was
None else but my dear wife.



* Written in abcb, 7-6-7-6 format

*Second prize in "Emotional Write Contest"
*Honorable mention in "Life Lessons Contest - CLOSED"
Earlier posted as item # 712454


MC Gupta
3 June 2003