Tussle

He who sets the benchmark
Fears defeat and disparity;
I put the child in me at stake
As a condition to set myself free
In a phase of independence
Where freedom is accompanied by responsibilities.

Having seen isolation turning into a requisite
And righteousness into an obligation
All this time I wasn’t myself,
Who’d rather sit unmoved and watch the birds fly
Till they disappear in the sky
For nothing ever seems to matter at all
Oh, except for my downfall!

Curbing my desires,
They say I’ll succeed
Helping myself,
They say nobody will I ever need
Call me fruitful,
And they’ll claim to be the ones who sowed my seeds.

I get the way it works
And get how it’s meant to be,
Me and you and everybody
Too afraid to question this victimhood
Go on and on and never stop
Go on forever and after,
Turn into a commodity they wish to sell
Too perplexed to ask… but…
What my forte is,
Who’s supposed to tell?

Roshni Arora is a final-year literature student at the University of Delhi.

Featured image credit:愚木混株 Cdd20/Pixabay