The Bittersweet Bond

By Agrima Bajpai

The day came an angelic girl child,

Only one man genuinely smiled,

With a sparkling shine in his watery eyes,

And stomach filled with butterflies.

He clasped her tiny finger tight,

Enacted to lose in each and every fight,

Treated her like a flower's petal,

And always remained kind and gentle.

As his daughter blossomed and grew,

Their relationship had something new.

The man never expressed his concern,

Though he knew that the world was stern.

He knew that she would become strong,

He knew that her journey was long,

But still he wanted to shield her,

Give her the bed of tender fur.

The day he gave her hand to another man,

He wished if he could put a ban

On the old customs, which left the sorrow of separation for the father of the bride,

No matter how much he had silently cried.

Why must his daughter's happiness be bought with pain,

And a helpless father, bear the weight of love in vain?

Why must he follow customs that bring only sorrow's might,

And a father loses his daughter on the darkest night?

He who had enshrined her in his heart

Endured the agony of her depart.

And the man who got her as a gift,

Failed to cherish, to value and instead created mountains of rift.

She who had never known the sting of grief,

Now does not get a moment of relief.

She who had left her heavenly palace,

Has to muster up the courage to keep fighting with the malice.

Had her daddy changed the stories end,

She would have lived where love and joy forever transcend.

But now she lives at unpredictable places,

Where people have multiple faces.

By Agrima Bajpai