An old stooped figure <br /> Near the garbage bin <br />A thousand wrinkles, <br /> And a figure so thin, <br /> <br /> She stares into empty space, <br />With dark vacant eyes. <br />Bundled in a dark corner, <br />Covered by filth and flies. <br /> <br />Her spirit broken, <br />By years of pain. <br /> Her visage scarred, <br /> By heat and rain. <br /> <br /> The beggar woman, <br />With a crinkled brow. <br />All she had with her, <br />Was her own shadow. <br /> <br /> Shunned and alone, <br /> With rags to adorn, <br />All bones and skin, <br />She sits alone in the din, <br /> And silently watches all. <br /> <br />The sad and the happy, <br />The gain and the loss, <br />In the drama of life, <br />That flows across. <br /> <br /> <br /> And when she hears a soft sound, <br /> The fall of a coin into her vessel round <br /> The lined contours melt into an untold grace <br /> in the liquid cesspools of her sunken eyes <br /> and the tears flowing down her face <br /> <br /> As night closes in, <br />Fragile and thin. <br /> She collects her bag, <br /> The sac of rags. <br />And walks away, <br />into the darkness unfurled. <br />And like a mystery She fades, <br /> Into the shadows of the world. <br /> <br />Unknown, unspoken <br />Unheard, unseen. <br /> And she was on this earth, <br />As if she had never been.<br /><br />Parvathy Nair<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/unknown-unseen/
