Love…actually!
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Rose day 1995*
By Anu Mahadev
Why do we celebrate the rose –
Cut, shorn of thorns and placed in the hands
Of the most beautiful
Why do a select few get to define beauty
Who cries for the lost pulchritude
Of petals, rapidly losing their heady scent
Except for the ones whose hands are bereft
Of sweetbriar velvet –
The ones who constantly play bridesmaid
To the bride
Extras to the main star
And why indeed should we cry
Is it because
some discerning eyes find no fine symmetry
In our not-so-lissome forms or wheat-colored skin
Which song or painting can claim
to be complete without the background,
fading into obscurity, even as Rapunzel
gets her prince, while we onlookers gape
at her good fortune
Wondering when we no longer get to act as understudy
But be the heroine of our own tale
*A day celebrated in colleges in India where boys give the most popular/beautiful girl a rose
Anu Mahadev is a New Jersey based poet, a 2016 MFA graduate from Drew University, NJ and Senior editor for TWI. She is passionate and outspoken about issues such as domestic violence, girls’ education and independence, and depression/bipolar disorder.
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Pooja Garg
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