Waiting on the Northern Seashore

Watching the darkening western sky

As the setting sun kisses the horizon

There waits a burning soul

Within the soft-petal body

Of a young woman.

The smell of the fresh drying fish

Is felt in the slow evening breeze.

She hears the joyful cry of a little boy

Celebrating his father's return

While he dances on the edge of an old brown boat

Retired from its years of fishing voyages.

This scorched female body stands there

Watching the boats returning

As her eyes struggle for tears.

Her life-pulsed arms reach her abdomen

To feel the light movement inside her womb.

The soul inside her womb has begun nowadays

To respond to the sound of the waves.

Carrying another soul within her pregnant body

This young woman waits for her man; her Kadal Veeran.

Been to the sea months ago

Promising her all the joys of the monsoon

On his return.

His virility still felt in her body, night after night,

And his manly fragrance still purely preserved.

Months have passed by,

Sunsets and Sunrises too.

Boats have returned with news from the Palk Straight,

But this burning soul pregnant with life within,

Yearns to see him return at dawn,

With the last drop of oil

To burn the lamp of hope

Within her.