Udita Purkayastha

She opened her eyes –
Dark comfort gave way to bright white light.
The bright blue sky beyond her window,
The rattle of traffic
And the noise of life fully lived
Beckoned her.
Beside her bed stood he
Talking to the kind bespectacled doctor,
While the white-robed nurse stared
With a rapt blank attention.
She knew she was loved;
His care and protection
Deserved much more than she could give,
For all she could feel inside
Was nothing akin to gratitude.
She saw the longing in his eyes
And felt the stir in her own self;
But today she wanted to fly alone –
Without his aid, his stick, his hand.

They say she is sick –
That she is weak
Yet refuses all help offered.
She bites.
The day her body recovered
She lost her mind to her dark self.
Blank eyes stare with rapt attention
Past a world she never could belong to –
A bright kind world that calls her mad.
A world so mad it made her insane.