Flames of pain



The young woman stares into the blazing red of the candle flame,
On the tip of her tongue is the most sacred thing to her: her husband's name.
She turns her tear filled eyes to his unmoving figure,
Remembering the moments when he rescued her from his mother's rigor.

The women of the village drag her into the house mercilessly,
Wiping the vermillion of her hairline unceremoniously.
They claw at the golden and black necklace resting on her collarbone,
About the misfortune of a widowed woman they drone.

The tears roll down her cheeks as they drape her in white,
They whisper about how she is a pitiful sight.
She gasps for air as she finally understands her situation,
There won't be one, but two cremations.

The death of her husband signed her fate,
She is going to die a torturous death on the pyre of her mate.
She screams as a woman yanks at her necklace,
Her mother-in-law steps forward and slaps her across the face.

She finally accepts her fate, as the women force her to stand steadily on the ground,
She sobs hysterically, blocking out any sound.
She watches with pain as her son lights the funeral pyre,
With a final anguished scream she hurls herself into the fire.

About this poem

"Sati was a custom religiously followed by a few, toed halfheartedly by rather more, sidestepped by many and ignored by most” ― Tim Mackintosh-Smith

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Written on December 01, 2021

Submitted by Coco1808! on December 01, 2021

Modified on March 05, 2023

1:11 min read
14

Quick analysis:

Scheme AABB CCDD EEXF GGFF HHBB
Closest metre Iambic octameter
Characters 1,188
Words 236
Stanzas 5
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4, 4

Tanisha Bamnodkar

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    "Flames of pain" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Mar. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/114924/flames-of-pain>.

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