Amitabh Vikram Dwivedi
Now we are 10
The equation is “10.”
I am single and free.
And he is not more.
His presence was a burden.
A life that I passed in a den,
Our marriage was an incident;
No, an accident that occurred
As a life imprisonment
I was sentenced to.
I lived those years
As if I were dying
Day after day—
Month after month—
Year after year
But now I have won the war finally.
One is to zero,
Yes “10” is my score.
I will rejoice.
I will sing.
As I were born again;
I am free today.
Amitabh Vikram Dwivedi is the author of two books on lesser known Indian languages: A Grammar of Hadoti (LINCOM GmbH, 2012) and A Grammar of Bhadarwahi (LINCOM GmbH, 2013). His poems have appeared in numerous anthologies, journals, and magazines worldwide. His poem “Mother” was included as a prologue to the essay collection Motherhood and War: International Perspectives (Palgrave Macmillan, 2014), edited by Dana Cooper and Claire Phelan. Amitabh is an assistant professor of linguistics at Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University in Katra, Jammu and Kashmir, India.