THE
MANSION
Rita Nath Keshari
Our dreams can play around
With us.
After repeated dreams of
A huge mansion beckoning me,
I went to see a psychiatrist.
After long sessions and longer bills
The shrink eyed me suspiciously,
“A literature teacher like you
Can’t quite hope to buy a flat
Leave alone a grand mansion.”
He stopped, narrowed his eyes, and said,
“Were you ever assaulted, sexually or otherwise
In a mansion, in your childhood or later on?”
The next day, I told my departmental head,
“madam, I have taught Mansfield Park
And the irony of Jane Austen
For over six years now.
I am tired of the mansion
Named as Mansfield Park in this novel.
May be Keats will be a nice change.
She obliged and my long nights
Are suddenly free from
The long shadow of
The unmentionable mansion.