The Weeping Woman.

The sound of a woman weeping kept me up all night long.

Lord that shrieking sound of women. I hated it.

Who is that? Who is that who’s keeping me awake I wondered.

I kept on rolling from one end to the other end of my bed

And I forced my eyes to fill with sleep

But my mind had already wandered off and

Was lending my ears to the sound of the weeping woman

On that day the night turned out to be colder

Than the usual July’s scorching hot summer

Through the window of my room

I saw the rain comforting the beach house. But again

It was weird to see the rain pouring as quietly as possible

Like an obedient child who was asked not to make any noise.

There was no breeze to spread love to my forehead.

There was no moon even at a full moon night

And the sky was covered in dark grey clouds.

It was disturbingly quite.

Not even a single living creature was heard

To be making a sound to show their existence.

All that I could hear was

The tireless irregular beating of my heart

And the weeping of a woman

As I sat on my bed in my pyjamas

I stared out of my room window to see who that woman was

But to my disappointment I couldn’t.

I thought it could be the last night wine that’s causing all this imaginations.

Since my mind was already occupied with her cry and

My ears aiding to that, my brain compelled me to calm myself with some water.

As I approached the refrigerator being barefoot,

Embracing all the chillness of the cold night,

How weird is it to not hear the waves hitting the shore?

As I already had a night full of long weird things happening around myself

I decided to set out of my house to fully embrace it.

To my surprise the weeping got much louder than before.

My forehead shrink as much as possible and

My eyebrows came closer in wonder.

My lips got separated in that chilly night in awe.

The hair on my body stood up like an army for battle.

I inhaled deeply and started to look around

For a poor soul that kept this poor soul’s sleep at bay.

Is this a bad omen? Why me? Who could be that woman?

I wondered.

The rain stopped pouring.

The clouds started to move away spreading moonlight on the beach.

Under the moonlight I saw the beach. It was calm but now

I could hear the waves hitting the shore.

The cold breeze embraced me and my body that stood in the sit-out.

I heard the night creatures talking.

Was everything back to normal?

But this time when I rendered my ears to listen to the weird weeping

That kept me awake, my ears failed to collect anything.

Well aren’t we the paramount species

That rule over everything in this world, below and above us?

Aren’t we the only ones among millions

Of species who were granted the gift of feelings?

Isn’t curiosity a part of that priceless gift?

My curiosity compelled me to look for that encroacher.

It wanted to take revenge on the woman

Who woke me up in the middle of the night!

So I stepped out of my house barefoot on that cold wet beach sand.

My Lord how many among billions have had that feeling.

The feeling of being engulfed in that wet cold beach sand of that chilly night.

The feeling of having your feet partly immersed in that wet sand and

Let that entire chillness of the night gush through your spines,

How many are lucky like me?

To have that beach breeze to embrace you

And to be your lover,

To have the full moon right above you lighting your way,

Oh! How beautiful this Earth is!

How enchanting she is, a beautiful yet wild Planet.

‘Are you enjoying this son?’

Fear took over. My heart skipped a beat. My knees where shaking.

‘Who is that? Who’s out there?’

Asked my scared trembling voice to the emptiness

I am your mother, your mother Earth.

What are you talking about?

“It’s me son. I am the one who gave birth to you.

The one who woke you up,

The one whom you are looking for- The Weeping Woman.”

What do you want from me? Why did you wake me up?

“Well son, you saw my daughter rain comforting me

You felt my son the wind stopped blowing to console me

You saw my barren sister covering her face in sadness, unable to see

Her sister weeping for so many years

You saw my girl the ocean being quite for her mother to weep

And you heard the silence of my boys to listen to their mom for a moment.”

But what makes you so sad, what makes you weep for so long?

“I weep so that my eldest, strongest, brightest

Children of my own would come to console me.

I weep so that my human babies could hear their mothers vain.

I weep so that my children, you and your brothers and sisters

Would stop hurting me again and again

I weep for you to listen to me for a second.

To ask you to stop hurting each other and your siblings

To ask me what’s wrong and to keep me on your lap and say

I am sorry mama.

That’s why I cried.”

“Son, I gave birth to you

So that all of you can live happily on me, sharing me

But you got greedy. You got greedy that you didn’t hesitate

To kill your own siblings, my children, for your own benefits

To kill them all until you made sure that only you are left on me.

Only you, my eldest, brightest, strongest children

Look around you and dig the past of you. See

How many of my children that you had to kill for your own satisfaction.

And tell me how many I have sacrificed so that you would stop one day.

That you would stop hurting your own siblings!

But you didn’t.

You didn’t even hesitate to

Choke me and my little girl and her daughters with your garbage.

You forgot who feed you, who helped you to take away your thirst.

You killed my girl

And filled her with straws, nets and trash

And treated her like a dust bin. My beautiful girl!

And you didn’t hesitate for a moment to poison my son,

Who loved and embraced you, with your poisonous gases

You stabbed him with those gases and are still making a big hole on his heart.

You killed my son and now my son is stinking of your gases and dead carcass.

He stinks of his dead siblings’ blood that he is refusing to blow.

And you made my daughter pour onto me as poison.

The one who filled up my girls with water is now filling them with acid.

All because of your greediness and arrogance

Tell me son, for how long should I listen to my children cry?

For how long can I tell them it’s alright- It’s your siblings, they are still learning?

Tell me for how long I can comfort them with lies?

Tell me for how long they can remain quiet and tolerate your atrocities.

And do tell me for how long

I their mother can keep them under control?

Like you my son, who went out of my control a very long time ago!

And if all that wasn’t enough, you began to hurt me.

You shaved my green head ruthlessly.

You ate; built and you burn and conquer me with my own beautiful green hair.

You built your ugly homes on me, where once my hair stood.

And above all, you poke me with your nukes.

Your weapon hurt me.

They bleed me. They create black spots on my beautiful face.

They have made me infertile like my sister moon. Like her,

I have also become barren

Not being able to give birth anymore.

What hurts a woman more than not being able to give birth, my son?

When I thought that you will take care of everything

You spoiled everything.”

“Remember- I am as you are. I too have emotions. And

Do tell your siblings to be careful of what they do, because

I always may not the Weeping Woman.

I can also be the Raging one, the ruthless one

To protect billions of my other children,

If it needs the sacrifice of your own

I can be a punishing mother too!”

Then there was silence. As I stood there in amuse, I realised something.

I was quite.

For a moment I was also listening to my mother.

I was consoling her just like my siblings did.

And as if I was given a shock, I knew the solution to the problem.

“After all, all we have to do and

All that she wants us to do is to

Listen.

To listen and to console

To Listen

To listen and to act!

Listen!”