Prafulla Kumar Mohanty's
DRAUPADI - XXXIV
If end is the close
of all reckoning pain fraught
dream ridden haughty recondite
desires of climbing heights
only to fall in the grave or
in a ditch attended by none
save maggots and vultures
why dream of a world of your own!
Others seen and unseen interfere
guide to perdition or pamper you
to folly: These too are other directed.
Is it all pre ordained or magic
unreal and ephemeral, to end
your dialogue half delivered!
The curtain falls when you are
ready to close your best soliloquy.
Draupadi clamped her head
to drive away the dark cobwebs.
She knew she was a mere player
she must play a true thespian
in all roles of her vast life.
She is the Queen and may be
Empress, if the Rajasuya Yajna
comes of well as they now plan -
Oh! again mortal ambitions bind me
to hopes and dreams of no avail.
Tonight she will be with Arjun
for whom her heart beats.
Exiled love returns to illuminate
the murk of her world - with him
she cannot play just a role
she wants to be herself, the young
bride waiting to embrace life
with a passionate kiss of the soul.
Her lovesprings flow wild
jumping the course beyond the seas;
but she is not what she was
when Arjun walked triumphant
to look in her eyes which dazzled
with her heart in them all aglow!
Draupadi had decided
to meet
each husband as a different wife.
The eldest is virtuous, truthful
yet addicted to the dice board
often he played alone to find
amity, victory - military and political.
Yudhistira quested for
the balance of mind and the world
in the royal square of the dice board:
Draupadi remembered how they played
their honeymoon was an intercourse
of ideas, empires, administration, power
and the dice game was at the centre...
A wry smile flashed and died
in her face, the eldest never saw
her beauty, her luscious figure
he could see her mind's expanse
and dived into the depth of her wisdom.
Valiant Bhimsen was ready and eager
she responded with erotic passion
which Bhima enjoyed and lavished
all his sweetness on her body and mind
with insatiable libido and reassuring words.
But Arjun is different I know
he is in Krishna's mould a scholar
unbeatable archer, chivalrous hero
soulfully I love him and wish to
have him as my lover to romance
with him under the full moon
away from the palace in some arbour
of cuckoo songs, night queens and grass
thrilled by the murmurs of a stream!
