My Covid Cocoon

i. I’m in the Covid cocoon.
Wrapped inside, I struggle, hoping to emerge soon.
As time passes, the cocoon spins tighter; I am not a fighter,
And I ask myself – will I break free?

ii. At first, I push,
I grapple with the walls closing in on me;
I try and I try to break free.
I curse the suffocating trap; it still continues to wrap
itself around my shrieking throat.

iii. Then, I stopped fighting;
I stopped snapping and biting,
and the gossamers of my cocoon
stopped strangling me.

iv. I made the most of my restrictions,
and I stopped letting this affliction
be a constriction
in my life. I started to pave
new roads, in this time so grave.

v. “Will I break free?”
The optimist said, “soon,
think of this time as a boon,
be grateful your cocoon keeps you safe.”
And I thought about this; an argument I couldn’t dismiss.

vi. The pessimist said, “never,
the pain will last forever;
your cocoon asphyxiates you.”
Now, I looked at this
like a never-ending abyss
of strangulation.

vii. Confused, befuddled,
my head was muddled;
I was tired.
I had to move, develop, change
in this frightening and strange
time; I couldn’t let this best me.

viii. I worked in my cocoon,
and played with its threads; soon
it was loose enough for me to make some room.
I expanded my horizons and began to wisen.
I learned to be better
than the tightening filaments that fettered
my limbs, my possibilities.

ix. I spent a year in my cocoon,
and then one more, but now,
the threads stopped throttling me;
I had turned my noose into a necklace.

x. One day, it started swelling,
and I could feel my dwelling
break apart.
The light shone in my eyes,
and I looked up at the skies.
Suddenly, my wings unfurled,
and I flew, flew, flew, high above the world.

xi. Up there, I remembered,
“I couldn’t always fly!”
And I smiled when I realised,
that my cocoon had surprised
me with beautiful wings.

xii. And I let out a laugh, and I started to cry;
my cocoon had made me a butterfly.

Anoushka Sabnis is an award-winning teenage author and poet based out of Delhi-NCR. She is also the Founder of Biblioverse (www.biblioverse.in) – a community for young readers and writers.

Featured image:  Walter del Aguila / Unsplash