An average damsel
her dreams were of being exceptional.
A mediocre mind
she aims for the unusual.
With commonplace knowledge
she aspires for success phenomenal.
With a typical body,
she fancies being impeccable.
Unknown to fame
she aspires to be acclaimed.
A middling birth
she desires high gentility.
A second-fiddle queen
she strives to be in the mainstream.
Always tried to be
up to the code.
But an off-beat path
inside her roars.
For it is the sum of all these commonplace traits
that makes her an extraordinary kitsch ace.
And if she dares to strangulate
their pities and subsidies
their epithets and judgments
their segregations and denominations
to be one with all
she is regarded as
a femme fatale.
Dr. Bhawna Vij Arora currently teaches English Literature to sophomores and freshmen at Vivekananda Institute of Professional Studies, affiliated with GGSIP University, New Delhi. She is an academic scholar par excellence who has a number of publications of critical essays, papers, and articles to her credit. She has presented her research at several international and national conferences and had been an active speaker in Seminars and other academic forums. She was a Fulbright Scholar at Yale University in the year 2015-2016.
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