Hidden Lives

What mother's heart wouldn't swell
her eyes glow with pride at the very
thought of her accomplished son for
whom praise of the highest order has
followed his exemplary academic
and professional career as a gold 
medalist at medical school graduation
author of countless medical articles
now a pioneer in neurosurgery. How
to add to this mother's exalted view of
a son beyond praise whose wife also
a respected physician with their three
young beloved children? Who would 
have the heart to explain that her pride 
and joy in life wears a Janus face
other than the judge who has now
sentenced this extraordinarily gifted
man to a life sentence in prison for
murder because Mohammed Shamji
will no longer abuse his wife having
broken neck and ribs then strangled
her to death, their children peacefully
sleeping nearby. Thoughtfully packing
his wife in a suitcase before leaving
for a day's surgery he planned to get
on with his life, and now he will 
elsewhere than in an operating theatre
despite the testimonials from fellow
physicians attesting to extraordinary
talent of one who performed over a
thousand complex life-saving surgeries
surely balancing out the violent
savagery of annihilating one life of
a woman who served him with divorce
papers unwilling to tolerate ongoing
misery and physical violence at the
hands of this superior-rated genius.