Freeze

by Mallika

[December 23, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian]
‘Lazy and sleepy I woke up late in the morning
The previous night’s trauma of serpents creeping
The moles, and the creatures, ‘great and small’
Disturbing my sleep, within my house
Induced my brain to think and wonder
Of these uncommon events I deeply ponder

At the well as I enjoyed my cool bath of spring water
Soothing my hot anxious head and body,
I heard a sound of gush of waters
The screams of my people lived close to the sea
‘The sea is in rage, at the height of a hill,’
Run for your lives, lest you may get killed’

The ‘calm blue sea, as high as a hill’
‘Unbelievable, never happened in ages
Was it the verdict of a person insane?
Or of someone’s blabber who is in trance?
No time to tune my mind to reason out
‘Cause of the panic and commotion all around!

‘Go! Wake up your sibling right now
Lest she with our habitat could be washed out’
Was the command of my widow mom!
My teenage body stiff and frozen
Wrapped up only with a towel linen
Stood still, like an iron icon!

A shudder, tremor, and feeling of being soared
A sense of going nowhere, but somewhere
I saw my pathetic shivering body half naked
My sister and mother getting into a wagon
A pandemonium of screaming and screeching
The waters like a hill up heaving

The experience was like a ‘roller skater’ indeed
Twisted, twirled, up and down, pushed and pulled
Beaten up, drowned, and stripped me stark naked
Helplessly I yielded to its barbarous work
Lungs and belly filled with strange water
All ended up as I caught a tree and on to it I clung!

My nude body camouflaged with the dark tree
The black oily water subsided and retrieved
With a cough the stinking water within my belly
Thrown up as a vomit through my mouth and nostrils
The worst embarrassment of all was the oozing
Between my thighs, the menstrual blood dripping!
For hours to the palmyrah tree was I glued
Detached from self and from the world
Until a strong young man’s hands held
My sticky, dirty, body that was soiled
Should I protest, for I was just naked?
I wish I did, but I was just frozen!

He covered my bare breasts with his torn shirt
His wet ‘sarong’ for my exposed lower half
And he carried me down and to a safer place
Now the scene is just the opposite one
A woman in the dress of a young man
Saved by a naked young male angel!

(An experience of a tsunami survivor) - Sri Lanka Guardian