The Problem of Pronoun
The doctor called me in
To show you on a small screen
Of an expensive machine in a congested room.
You were throbbing with life,
But I could not find you
Because you were hiding in the cloudy image.
Your mother was in the corner
On the bed with her big bared bulging belly.
A curious smile spread on her anxious face.
The doctor sensing my shock or suspecting me,
Hurriedly pointed at your big egg shaped head,
And the small curling spine.
The cardiogram frisked up and down
With the loud noise of your pounding heart.
Did you sense my perplexed presence?
When we talk about you,
Your mother addresses you as ‘he’ in Tibetan;
But we don’t know actually.
It is illegal in India for us
To determine the right pronoun to address you
Till you expose yourself to the wicked world.
Till then due to the language deficiency,
We have to be conscious of the gender case,
But we will not administer ‘it’ while referring to you.