"Delicate little you," you called me.
My beliefs defined you.
My ignorance let you leech on.
You....
Think I am powerless.
Think I am unguarded.
Think I am breakable.
And you dwelled comfortably satisfied.
You....
Made my life complicated.
Mooched on to my vulnerability.
Lied to me.
And you used & abused me.
You....
I see you clear.
I see your game.
I see your disguise.
I see you now.
And it is you who is frail.
You....
Stand on me to survive.
There is no room,
to breathe beside you.
And no more I say.
You....
Stay away and afar.
Ego, I cast you out.
And now I call you,
"delicate little you."
Solitude whispers,
Where's the cloud that nestles my dreams?
Scared of people distancing
Unable to find a support system,
All are romancing their lives,
Sometimes a demon, rarely a friend.
Not fairly skinned, not an apple of the eye,
To the passers-by
Unworthy, fatty, shamed and cult,
A sea of dreamers lost to the grind.
Beware of the night,
Night divides the sky,
Currents are against making a difference.
Checking out grooms always,
Coffee with accompaniments,
Strangers met and parted ways.
Left a hurting heart, feel remorseful,
Stay away from conventions?
Preferring to dwell in solitude?
Cross the path, break all boundaries,
Smiling through the tears,
Not one's is willing to love the unlovely.
Negative thoughts multiply rapidly
Is it necessary to find one?
Who'll treat you like a slave?
Easy to count seeds in an apple
Absurd to count apples in a seed.
To find a hurt and heal it
To find the need and fill it.
From today's lens or yesteryear's
Bias is there, hard to speak it out,
Judged with colour and looks,
Fair is always lovely.
Just want the company of a wonderful relationship?
No fat shaming, skin colour?
There are a lot of late bloomers
Forget the past arena of bad news
Choose to react positively,
Turn the scars to stars.
Add joy to the solitude
Being our own best friend
By looking after ourselves,
And receive the abundance of joy....
I've wished
All my life to the
One woman who has been
Everything to me.
Today I realise from now on,
All my life I shall be wished
A Happy Mother's Day,
From my son who is everything to me.
Life has such mysterious and
Profusely beautiful events
Lined up that I am
Grateful and honoured to
Experience and witness the vastness
Of nature and God alike.
Encountering some of nature's
Most powerful existential miracles
Bearing a child, growing it
Inside the womb, it's purpose met,
Undergoing the dreaded child labour;
Coming through like a queen,
Breastfeeding an infant; unimaginable,
Unfathomable, surreal of
Most experiences of my life.
Raising a child, listening to him,
Watching him move, watching him try
To learn basics
Rolling, crawling, sitting, feeding, and what not!
After all that I went through,
Nothing compared to what I felt;
Laughter and tears together
A feeling I've never felt -
That moment when they brought him close,
Nothing compared to what I felt!
Minutes went past like hours,
Slow - motion like in the movies,
Life's changed, many meanings too;
Life's changed, many relationships too.
I will never fail to feel
That pride, joy, love and warmth
Next time I wish my mother
A Happy Mother's Day!
All my life I've wished
A Happy Mother's Day!
Now all my life I shall be wished,
A Happy Mother's Day!
Kneel not to the people who stand humiliating
Try not to bring them happiness
Fire is good if keep the distance
The moment when get close,
Will either be burnt or plunged into it and vanish.
Kneel not to the vice who shed negative vibes,
Try not to assemble too gloomy tide,
Every thought creates power,
Produces its current.
Kneel not to the situation of ineptitude
Try not to surrender to dejection
Inability to face a crisis, callousness
Oh, cut off a branch of a tree,
A new limb grows back in time.
Kneel not to stumbling blocks
Try not to run away from problems
Convert pitfalls into an objective
Failure in the first instance,
Is not necessarily perish
Avail the potential of other chances
Regain what was lost in the first niche.
Kneel not to bad backgrounds
Try not to immerse in the show of dreams
Oh, pour a hundred buckets of water,
A plant will not become a tree overnight,
Take baby steps to progress.
Kneel not to the dark predicament,
Try not to hear castles of lies
The entire universe is suited to the needs of all
Create goldenly moments, if possible
Realize thyself, surrender to peace,
Live a dignified life, abundant in self-love.
Give me some words
To express my feelings;
To write something meaningful
To share with this world.
Pour me some red wine
Perhaps it's nine o' nine;
One sip at a time
One word at a time.
Give me a second chance
To express and explain;
What day is like and
What the night sky hides.
Hand me an ink pen
To connect to the spirits;
To call upon angels and
To touch tranquil minds.
Give me a few sentences
Of how flowers bloom,
And the sea roars;
How animals mate
And humans love.
Give me some time
To whisper in your ears
What stories I've heard
And what tales I have shared.
Show me some commitment
To withstand a writer's block
Show me how it's done
I ain't that no more.
Give me some words
To express my interests;
To write something meaningful
To share with this world.
Is it just me or
Do you feel the same?
The calm in the air,
The smell of the fresh flowers,
The waves of the beach,
The scent of the day,
Nothing excites me no more.
The constant hunger
For something like love,
For something like bliss,
I just remain hungry.
Nothing honest about the feeling
Nothing serene about the butterflies.
Well, no more butterflies
Nothing exciting in the love I search.
Maybe I fell in and out of love
Too soon to understand it's depth.
Maybe I kissed and laughed
Too soon to know what it really meant.
For today I feel void
Like there's an empty space in me
Like there's nothing more in me to give
To a love that may find me one day
Or maybe never.
The woods are getting darker
Betrayed by the mother sea
And thrown away by herself
The lone ripple, lonely at the top.
Loneliness is a dangerous emotion
Disconnected from near and dear
Find solace in one's own company
That's heartbroken, aggrieved.
While playing on the shore
Out of stupidness,
Hurt a feeble, wounded seagull,
By sprinkling sand and water.
Caught redhanded,
Mother dear warranted,
ordered punishment.
The strong current threw away,
The abandoned wave was far off.
Now in a state of delirium,
Away From the safety net of mother
Maniac, equidistant, seized,
In the middle of gloominess,
Heedless which way to go.
The sky darkened, the dark was punctured,
By the slow rising glow of stars.
She's still in the air,
Not found a way back home
The wind slushing through the shore,
In search for the lost ripple'
"As the earth is round, she'll come back to you"
Wind consoled the panicked mom.
The moon is playing hide and seek.
Bewildered in the darkness
Lullaby of mother sea inaudible
She screams, she moans
No one reciprocates.
Up in the dark clouds
A lightening perceive the wailing sound,
And appealed rain God,
Threads of raindrops, a shower of silver rain
Like a multicoloured swing.
Slowly approached the Little one.
Delighted, she grabbed the cascade,
Heard the sounds of water lapping
Saw the reflection of light in rippling water
The shore is bathed in golden moonlight.
Astonished, relieved,
she starts laughing,
Spreading pearls of water droplets
That reaches the glimmering hands of the crying mom.
She slapped her, she kissed her
All at the same time
The settled baby giggled.
'Do you want to punish me?'
The pelagic mom embraced her,
"I am your mother
Mothers' love is not for winning
Don't play any more pranks."
A glowing tear or two,
Rolled out of the eyes and shone.
See me through my misery
The misery I believe I live in
The reasons and excuses I give
Myself for not breaking loose.
For I am sure I'd lose my shite
If I get out there by myself
Or is it just in my head?
I write and preach about women
Having to be independent and bold
When all I can do for myself is just
Hold on to what makes me hate men more.
Why is there a difference at all
When all he can do is not all you can!
When the idea is to not,
Why do I constantly have to hear it?
The drama of being a woman
In a society that doesn't know
The spelling of it. When,
All it can do is project fake sympathy
And of course, more drama!
Now, see me through what I believe
Is life. Is love. Is what it is to be a woman.
To breathe the air of unending complaints
When I am the one to be whining.
Will, there be no hour when someone
Would just finally understand
What it is like to be kept in the dark
About who you're born to be.
AN INDIVIDUAL.
So, my dear sisters and brothers
Let's break the chains of bondage…
Let's see each one of us through
Our chains of misery we've entangled ourselves with.
Let's make it worth the while
Let's make it normal to break loose,
Let's make it alright to break hearts
Then to be broken so hard.
See me through me
The me that has so much to share.
See me through
The whole world matters.
This is where people meet
They fall in love
They settle down
Though not carefully designed.
Riding in trains, buses, and ferries,
Running after those dreams,
Take them with the heart,
And cannot brush them aside,
Or push them under,
The mildewing carpet of memory.
Find the final solace,
Under the tapestry of thy shade.
This's not mere brick n cement, Stone, or wood.
For thick and thin, joy or sorrow
A mute spectator, thy stood.
Everything's possible, Within the four walls.
Holds a thousand memoirs,
Images carefully orchestrated.
This is the secret place
Where to grow, to dream,
Hide secret love, mating, gossiping
Behind those enclosures.
When trouble comes knocking,
From the outer sphere
To this murky world,
You hide me.
As a powerless inhabitant
I slept under your warmth,
From emotional fragile state,
Got access to a different world.
My mind is craving
To come back to thee To lie down,
the comfort of the couch,
You offered always.
To breathe the air
Caressed with the incense
Of Jasmine, Rose, Nisagandhi,
To listen to the lullaby
Thou utters, at sleepless nights.
Wanna become a child,
To play in the sugary sand.
Dreams in the eyes,
But no outlet or avenues.
My dear home,
Now a skeleton,
A coral of past glory Either the people around,
A blur or just a voice
There's no life
To bring cheers or hope.
Like a crying berceuse,
Hears the buzzing,
And lost to the cacophony,
Of the journey of life...
To the strong ones,
To the bold ones,
To the ones less understood,
To the ones who’ve got it all easy,
To the ones who’ve not,
To the ones who dream big,
To the ones whose dreams are simple,
To the bold ones, the gold ones,
The high heeled ones, the kurti ones,
The long haired ones and the short ones.
The tall ones, the stout ones,
The big ones, and the not so big ones,
The ones with curves and the ones with abs,
The ones with scars, the ones who fight wars,
The ones who are in sarees,
The ones in a pilot uniform,
The ones who teach, to the ones who nurture.
The old ones and the newcomers,
To the glam ones, to the ‘fam’ ones,
To the social media bombs; to the
Perfect round roti ones,
To the early ones, to the late ones,
To the best mom nominees to the
Perfect dog-moms and full-time rom-coms!
To the flat bellies; to the love handles.
To the nerds to the dancers,
To the daddy’s princesses to the black hoodie rebels,
To the writers, singers, poet, to the home-makers,
To the neighbours, teachers, friends, sisters and mothers,
To the wives who never complain –
To the wives who do!
To the feminists, to the rare ones,
To the loud ones, to the silent ones,
To the lovers, to the psychos,
To the angel in every girl’s real glow.
Happiest Women’s Day to the best of souls,
God’s creation of beauty, power, elegance,
efficacy, intelligence, patience, motherhood, wisdom.
And a lot more than this world could ask for.
Happy Women’s Day to the ones appreciated,
The ones less appreciated,
The ones who do it for themselves,
The ones who do it for the world.
Happy Women’s Day to the strength of
Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow.
A Poem by Aakanksha Dinah Thomas
Art of How To 