This Vikram-Vetaal marriage

She sits with bated breath
knowing that this may indeed
be the last summer
of normalcy

and gets ready for
what is now the new normal
that HE has named as
final,
terminal,
dying,
dead even
waiting to be buried,
decaying everyday

where she had ignored signs
and slogged on
thinking that
this was what
marriage was all about
he has chosen
although at deficit

to walk away
with happiness as the goal

his prerogative, it's been
 to name it
as parallel lives
and rail road tracks
separation-perhaps-on-the-way-to-the-D-word

every time there's no buffer
of kids or others
the veil slips
and the eyes glaze over

the blame lies
squarely on her shoulders
placed there by a twist of the lip and
"Look at who you are, look at what you do,
look at who I have become
because of you"

loads left for her
for being herself
now that the ZNMD
and YoLo have sunk in for him

and he, on the pretext of 'you spoke'

is off again, like Vikram and Vetaal
that legendary tale from
Doordarshan long ago

And she pays bills,
and counts days
until peace returns
and moves through this life

knowing it is not her
was never her

It's just lives that have outlived their usefulness

and another thread unravels,
swish,
swish,
shh
as her fingers tap the keyboard.