Compulsive begging

Compulsive begging

Calling bell rings.

Yes, come in please.

She has come from the Sundarbans

To a painter’s house;

I the painter will run my brush of her

For a high-end client;

Her struggling teeth opened up to give

Me something she’d want me to know as smile,

I smiled back, water? She drank the cold glass

With rhythmic sound that spoke of her class.

Go to the room and freshen up if you please.

She goes and comes back to take the comfortable seat

Sponsored for her for a while…

I had three canvasses arranged…one of her undressing

Second undressed…and the third of her organs alone.

My brush goes into the veins of the saree, the soutien

She loosened like the skin of a chicken,

As though she has done it many a times

To fill up the mouths of beggars in her family;

The first canvas done…over to the next…

The foundation is done…

I had in mind that the client wanted

An authentic picture… so the black hair with

Impoverished red lines, the ribs connecting her breasts

The eyes of daily dolor, nipples bitten by vagabonds

Had to figure;

Going to the third…the place of creation and destruction

The place of nurture and torture

Had to show;

I found myself borné…opened me up completely!

I am not Duhshasana for heaven’s sake!

In a moment, on seeing my hairy thorns up and about

She eyed me up and down… all of me!

Yes, good…I said to the object activated

My brush is rushing through the land

I saw fruits, flowers, birds in the garden

That hanged between me and her

Until it was time for her to leave

For an amount of alms up her sleeve;

For the final dressing, she’s not required anymore

Canvasses ready to undrape callers from door to door.

Note:

Sundarbans: The forest which is famous for sundari (beautiful) trees and the Royal Bengal Tigers. It is also the place from where budding/professional artists hire their subjects.

Duhshasana: One of the Kaurava brothers in the epic The Mahabharata. The name also means bad (duh) ruling (shasana). He is also remembered as the one who tried to undress Draupadi (wife of the Pandavas) in public.