An Old Woman
An old woman grabs
hold of your sleeve
and tags along.
She wants a fifty paise coin.
She says she will take you
to the horseshoe shrine.
You’ve seen it already.
She hobbles along anyway
and tightens her grip on your shirt.
She won’t let you go.
You know how old women are.
They stick to you like a burr.
You turn around and Face her
with an air of finality.
You want to end the farse.
When you hear her say,
“What else can an old woman do
on hills as wretched as these?”
You look right at the sky
clear through the bullet holes
she has for her eyes.
And as you look on
the cracks that begin around her eyes
spread beyond her skin.
And the hills crack.
And the temples crack.
And the sky falls
with a plateglass clatter
around the shatter-proof crone
who stands alone.
And you are reduced
to so much small change
in her hand.
by Arun Kolatkar
from Jejuri
New York Review Books, 1974