Penelope
PoetryIftekhar Ahmed
It takes a lot of hope, faith, and strength for a woman to wait for her husband to return safely from a war. Inspired by the legends, paying tribute to the pain of the families of warriors, join Iftekhar as he describes Penelope, wife of Odysseus, who spends her days weaving a piece of cloth and then unraveling it every night as she waits for her husband to return home from the Trojan War.
Every day begins with the dawn,
Sun rises at the eastern horizon,
Her needles start moving forward,
Weaving wools into a lovely piece,
Along she stitches her wounds,
Slowly healing her broken heart,
Collecting each and every shard,
Yet till dusk, one’s still lost,
While she fights for heart,
Leeching off her sweetheart’s fortune,
Waiting for her faith to fall,
She knows it’s incomplete clothe,
Keeping those wolves at bay.
So when every dusk falls,
Her needles start a reverse walk,
Untangling the woven clothe,
As needles open up every bond,
Her wounds become raw again,
All that she had ever dreaded,
Every fear and every nightmare,
All start to seem plausible,
Yet she lights up her beacon,
A beacon of hope and faith,
Faith in her lost husband,
And hope of him riding back,
Riding on shimmering waves,
And ending all her agonies.
Every night she cuts her heart,
Every day she heals her heart,
While glimpsing at the faraway sea,
The sea that took her other half.
Iftekhar Ahmed
If you ask a friend of Iftekar’s to describe him, the first word that will helplessly tumble out of their mouth is ‘poet’. The soft-spoken poet, who radiates positive vibes and wields excellent oratory skills, Iftekhar, is currently pursuing an undergraduate degree in Electrical Engineering at IIT Tirupati. He is also a well-known badminton player who spends his spare time immersed in books and movies.