Poems by Chador Wangmo
Paw Prints in My Heart
A small bundle of black
Wagging his pointy white-tipped tail
Conquered my heart
When I was five.
“No strays!” My mom had yelled
Little did she know how I felt
Knowing he wasn’t mine to keep.
Cardboard boxes and old gunny bags
On my tippy toes
I built a home for Blackie,
My pet, who lived not with me.
Wet licks of love
Frolicking in the dust
Chasing, running, playing
Blackie left his paw print all over my clothes.
One day, a stranger appeared
Stinking of cheap rum
And dirty unwashed layers of clothes.
Two days he went around town
Shooting the strays during the day
And boozing in the dim bars at night.
Burying my Blackie
Whose white-tipped tail
Was drenched in red,
“No pets ever!” I cried.
Now I’m thirty, still I find
Blackie’s paw prints
Stomping all over my heart
And I remind myself, “No pets ever!
The Stench of Loneliness
I would often see her, sitting
Near the window, her gaze fixed
At nothing, rings of smoke curling
In wisps of memories she perhaps
Wanted to discard or maybe
Was hinging onto desperately.
We were two people, alone
In our own worlds separated
By an invisible wall hidden
In those swirling cigarette smoke.
She is long gone now, defeated
By the burden of pain, she never
Told me but somehow I smelt it
In those puffy smoke unwillingly
Leaving her silent lips.
I am all alone now, as lonely
As I was living with my mom
Although the last of the smoke
Billowed away at her funeral pyre
I smell loneliness, the stench of cigarette
Fills my lungs even today.
A Woman’s Love
The sky claims
The sun, moon and the stars
Yet can keep them in her bosom
Only till the time they choose.
The sky can’t let loose the sun
At night, nor can it bind the moon
During the day, same with the stars too!
Yet the sky claims
The sun, moon and the stars
As her own
While she struggles
Spreading every inch of herself
Just to keep them in her arms.
Chador Wangmo, Teacher turned Writer, lives in Thimphu, Bhutan with her husband and three children. She has authored three novels and ten illustrated books for children. Although her work is mostly prose, she likes writing poems which has been well received in the literary festivals conducted by FOSWAL at Delhi and Jaipur in India. She has been awarded an honorary Doctorate in Literature by the Vikram Sheela Vidyapeeth, Sidharth Nagar, UP. She has also been awarded Sidhartha Tathagat Sansthan Sahitya award in recognition of her contribution to literature.
