Household Of Four Women
For Nabaneeta
while the economist
father is away
writing on poverty lines
that would win him
a world prize
the poetess mother
is home
looking after her old mother
also a poet
raising her two daughters
in a household of four
wandering in the quiet gaps
of unreachable trails
making art
her friends
writing of women
like her
who first tend to life
who first make earth
that would nourish
women
of past and future
then write their poems.
~
Vaishali Paliwal
Nabaneeta Dev Sen is an Indian poet, academic and novelist born to two poets Narendra Dev and Radharani Devi. She has published more than 80 books and won many national and international literary awards. She has talked about her household of four when she was taking care of her mother and raising her two daughters as a single mother. You can find a picture of this household of four in the below story that was written by her daughter for her grandmother, a child bride before she became a young widow and then a great poet and revolutionist herself. Nabaneeta was married to Nobel prize winner famous Indian Economist Amartya Sen.
Below is also one of my favorite pieces by her.
“My exile is over, mother,
No more living in the jungle for me
Come, mother, underneath this matted beard
Feed the familiar cheeks of your child
Open up your breasts, mother, and watch how
The seven streams of milk
Gush towards my parched tongue
Look at these feet, mother, the tiny feet
Where your golden bells had jingled
Look at this arm
Upon which you had tied your talisman
When I was born
Now look at this chest where you had planted
The sapling of a heart
In a soft green stretch of sun
In the hidden mesh of this dark jungle,
Impenetrable,
Has grown a hungry tree
With toothy leaves and sharp claws
And fierce flowers
It chews on other hearts
A fine flesh-eater
My time in the jungle is over, mother,
Now the jungle lives in me.”
— Nabaneeta Dev Sen
