1. Letter to My Future Husband
-A poem by Romi Jain

2. Sir! I’m unable to write today.
I thought of writing you a nice letter
but I had doubts if I would ever meet you
and had fears generated by womanizers.
Still I’ll write:
If you’re for me somewhere
I’ll accomplish this feat!

3. I bow to you, sir!
To you I offer myself in complete submission
Sir! If in erasing my existence
I can obtain happiness for you
I will.
I want to hold you comfortably and securely
in my palm
like a pearl kept safe inside a casket.

4. I’m accused of being argumentative
And I have no guilt.
O’ my lord- my vanity, my pride, my proclivity to argue,
my reason, my ambition
-all that make me unacceptable to the world
and of which I haven’t had the slightest regret—
melt down and vanish in your rays
for you’re the brightest sun and you penetrate
my stony passions and crumble them!

5. Sir! The wind of puberty brought me dreams of you
-still adorning the tree of my love those fresh leaves!
With dreams came my resolution to be bound
to you, just to you.
And I have kept my resolution, sir!
But you just pass by!
The paradise I built exclusively for you
with loyalty and love
looks on, as if betrayed by an indifferent owner
of a splendid palace.

6. They, the other men, have been so curious.
Arrogantly confident of winning a woman, they
tasted defeat in my courtyard and were never let in!
I admit some of them were kingly in appearance
with the radiance of diamond and the sweetness of
apple. They stood before me with royal gait
holding baskets of inducements.
But my heart was chained to you,
the shackles they couldn’t break—
the unseen shackles that crisscross over my
mind, my body, my thoughts, my soul:
soft like wool, blowing gently like breeze, thrilling
me with fascination for you;
thorny for those who dare intrude.

7. Sir! Just fill yourself with me
like water contained in a pond.
The water that never dries up,
and too powerful for a flood!
The water with which no outside stream
mingles–
And the pond and the water remain unintruded
ever!