The Vegetable Vendor

Sitting among the vendors in the busy morning market,

With a charming beam and a mellow voice she sings a merry rhyme,

"Fresh, luscious vegetables and good health in my basket",

"Pumpkins, beets, peppers, carrots, and the tingly, tangy lime".

Look here! cried the frowning man, there's a rotten one in the pile,

She discards the festered stock and replaces in a flash,

The long journey decays them, she said with an appeasing smile,

Glaring with a stern look, he walks away giving her cash,

Unassailable is her determination that defies the blazing summer,

The tattered saree and the worn-out slippers, she really never cared,

"Is that all I made today?", she questioned with a melancholic murmur 

She wound up her stall for the day and walked home worried and scared.

The wretched, tippler husband grabs her meagre pittance,

She sobbed alone in her thatched hut, with no one to hear her woes,

She wiped her tears all by herself for the only way was persistence,

Her life was a vicious cycle, as another day arose.