MY WIFE-MY TEACHER--award winner

MY WIFE-MY TEACHER


I am a teacher myself,
But I was a student too.
Of teachers outside the school,
Today I want to tell you.

From my mother, I did learn,
Serving others, working hard;
From my father, I imbibed
Simple living, simple heart.

Though father and mother, mine,
Made me into a young man;
It was, verily, my wife,
Who made me a real man.

East exists because of west,
North is, because, south is;
Similarly, it is true,
Man is, because, woman is.

Feelings that a woman has
For men and for the husband;
Though not fully, yet, somewhat,
Knows, only, a married man.

Even in death, my dear wife,
Did teach me a lesson great;
Smiling she bore all the pain,
Saying, to almighty, grace.

Though with me she is no more,
She is always in my thought;
And only now do I know,
Why sometimes she was distraught.

Why do women shout or cry?
Why they get melancholic?
Why one day, smiling, playful,
Next day, why they are so sick?

Why things trivial for men,
Are, for women, crucial?
And those, important to men,
For them, immaterial?

Wife, husband live together,
They do love and quarrel, too;
In the daily rigmarole,
Ever busy are the two.

Rarely, ever, do they think,
What, in fact, ails the partner;
What are his or her hopes and,
What does worry him or her.

Spouses live on together,
Till one day death does them part;
For the bereaved, thereafter,
Does a life different start.

Husband is often baffled
By a wifely taunt and tear.
But the reasons for these are
Only later, to him, clear.

In moments of solitude,
Thinking of the days gone by;
What he said and she replied,
When all did they talk, and why;

Ruminating in his mind,
Over the events of yore;
Newer meaning he discerns
In what was so far obscure.

Enigma, often, is wife,
The husband hardly knows her;
But after she is no more,
He understands her better.

In the end, I must say this,
Though many taught me in life;
Yet my teacher, the greatest,
Was the only one, dear wife.


* Written in abcb, 7-7-7-7 format

· *Second prize in "Emotional Write Contest"

*Honorable mention in "Life Lessons Contest - CLOSED"


MC Gupta
3 June 2003