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Homecoming: A poem by Jayashree Bhattacherjee

Overjoyed and on tenterhooks is she, her hero comes home tonight
So long disconsolate, she hurries quickly to light 
With throbbing heart, the red fire in the polished grate
To clean the china and set the chairs straight
She dances with joy, with happy dreams intoxicate
Waiting eagerly for the homecoming of her soulmate
The center of a world now blown bright
She wonders when will he come home, how long has she to wait
Married to a soldier, she became a military wife
 Marched by her husband’s side through all struggle n’ strife
Sometimes her steps would grow weary
But she had to remain steady being the wife of a military
She bore the weight of worrying what might be in store
The wordless fear of waiting when her soldier went to war
Today he comes home, her lamps are lit, doors kept ajar
She is impatient, he nears, yet he seems so far
Finally, with military honors he comes home in a flag wrapped    
She neither swoons nor cries, stands like a statue, so shocked
She can’t reconcile with grief, yet in her languid listless heart
A pride glows bidding farewell to him who from her forever does part.