She got a lot done by doing so little; <br />She said, 'I love you,' and left the rest to him. <br /> <br />She fed him, nursed him, and slaved for him; <br />She was no feminist but, when the time came, she left him. <br /> <br />He wandered, beast-like, ash-smeared, covered with hides, <br />Until she reclaimed him and made him a human being. <br /> <br />As the moth entered, the flame shone even more brightly; <br />He realized that such deaths don't come so easily. <br /> <br />He boasted, blustered, threatened to leave her forever; <br />Instead, he fell unconscious until her touch revived him. <br /> <br />During the day she was flamboyant, bold, quick; <br />But at night she pleaded, darling please turn out the lights. <br /> <br />When she went to Kathmandu, he went to Kanyakumari <br />Only to discover that the continent wasn't large enough to divide them. <br /> <br />When the veil dropped, the incense became camphor, not musk; <br />Chastened, he prayed, O Mother, please forgive my profanities. <br /> <br />He thought he could teach her a lesson or two in celibacy <br />But he found a child asleep beside him who'd forgotten her sex completely. <br /> <br />After years of abnegation, recovering his wits he looked at her appealingly <br />But she wasn't a switch to be turned on or off at will. <br /> <br />Obsessed with performance he wished to go on and on; <br />Relax, she said, this isn't 'publish or perish.' <br /> <br />Insecure to the extreme, he tried to steal her friends <br />Until, one by one his friends said that they preferred her to him. <br /> <br />He proposed to a hundred women and became a laughing stock; <br />When she accepted him, they weren't more astonished than him. <br /> <br />Our love is so ordinary, he thought, looking at their lives; <br />But she never complained: he lacked imagination, not she. <br /> <br />[From The Serene Flame]<br /><br />Makarand Paranjape<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/her-strategy/
