Like a river, gushing and leaping Always flowing through my veins for you It escapes the calm exterior in animated spills Especially in our brief moments together, those few
The heart is abundant, yet the force contained Nurturing me and the lush surround Wishful, you ask me to find the sea As if I am yet to touch the ground
Winding through the land, spreading but not thin I have my eyes out in every direction But what if the sea is just my end, and not my means? What if the flow is my home, my true inspiration?
A touch, a smile, a passion, a love Unlike us, these are not prisoners of time We seek, before and after we taste Not realizing that our longest relationship, is with longing itself
Heart is a tempest, in magic and void The beauty, is in riding its waves The art of sanity, however, is in Knowing, that every ripple is the same and eternal
In the thick of the forest With the fog, cold and sounds blurring your senses Do you try to shed the obscuring cloud? Or do you wear it like a cape instead?
On the winding paths of purpose As you catch your breath Does the sight of flowers nurtured by your sweat soothe you? Or does the distant promise still bother you instead?
You know you can fly, above this dense A clear view ahead and wind by your side Do you search for your wings that hide from you? Or do you just go ahead and dive with faith instead?
Time has always marked us with lines When born, we call them fingerprints and dimples After a few decades, we call them wrinkles
You see the lines that time added around my eyes The ones I see more when I look into the mirror Are the ones that time added to my spirit
Still a child, I believed in my supernatural abilities Youthful but naïve, I fought the scars of my wounds Now, I accept them with camaraderie
Admiring them for all the tests they stood Understanding them for all the ones they didn’t And still hoping that zest will persevere beyond their wisdom
To young fathers, I see the delight when you look into your daughter’s eyes I know the way your heart beats for her I know you would jump into the sky to get her the stars I know you’ll fight for the world to be her oyster
To older mothers, I know you don’t see your children differently when they are that young But as she starts to grow, you teach her to accept based on your experience You have passed on some of your dreams, and some you have lived through her But during crucial times, you pass on your belief of adherence
To older fathers, She is your joy that eases your day You hold her gentle like a flower You always want to give her everything And fear the day when her wellness is not within your power
To young mothers, You know the fight she has to fight You know you have to run and pass the baton You let her dream, you let her fly Hoping not everything she’ll ask for will still be Latin
Know that you are the ones who decide how she lives Know that those without daughters may not know the women of the times You are the ones that have to take a stance and make her able You are the ones that have to think and act betimes
You teach and enable her when mothers also keep and pass their name You teach and enable her when you show you are equals in this game You teach and enable her when you reflect on where to place the blame You teach and enable her when you stand with her without shame
Privilege is the hand that helps as we climb a ladder Privilege is being able to go out without a cloak Privilege is knowing you won’t be asked more of yourself than others Privilege is feeling safe among all the other folk
Privilege is what we held on to When we pretended to establish equality If you ever had to pick yourself up after losing everything You may begin to imagine the strength it takes to stand calamity after calamity
Even those of us, who haven’t meant harm Have used the helping hands for our own climb Knowing all too well in our hearts who our climb was going to leave behind
We may have felt guilt, we may have sought repentance Our hearts may have pained at others’ injustice Silent bystanders so far, not knowing what we could do Are being told how we could stand together this solstice
Let us learn to see another person Beyond their biologically adapted trait to sun exposure We all have color and we all wear a shade Let us not hide any longer behind our masquerade
Let us have more faith in our abilities to seek and forgive Let us focus on the efforts to amend Let us be humble and thankful That what’s being sought is justice, not revenge
An old man, thin and frail Smile that extends to his deep set eyes Veins that have stood with him through the decades Lines that have shaped with his life
Not a glamorous job, not a different vibe Not different goals, the same old strive Money for the food, roof for the family Survive the system, manage bare dignity
But he was once young, he was once handsome He once had eyes filled with dreams He dreamed of love, he dreamed of standing up He too dreamed of purpose and meaning
Is it fair that only some have the chance to pursue their dreams beyond youth? Should privilege define our lives so? Because that is our ugly truth
I breathe just like the fire And just like the fire, I am conflicted About whether to burn Burn to fuel my passion Burn to brighten the surrounding Or whether to be quenched Quenched to serve my thirst Quenched to satisfy my longing
A tiny particle challenged the reigning species again It brought the global hustle to a stand still We, who are always willing to run others over We are now, at the other end of the kill
Communications between two is hard enough We are witnessing attempts of communications to billions Watching leaders and masses has been humbling, frustrating and entertaining And the shares and forwards about them have amounted to gazillions
To some, this is not about #WFH but survival Some struggle to breathe and receive appropriate care Some struggle to make ends meet and feed other mouths Some essential workers are doing everyone’s fair share
Many others find this hard to understand and believe Many are trying to cope with the inconvenience of being limited to home Many are renewing interests and honing skills Many are letting their skepticism and imagination wildly roam
We found huge sums of money (‘for people in need’) We found ways to negotiate wars (that kill as many as covid19) We found time for family and friends (quite creatively too) We found time to pause from our never-ending chores
Air that couldn’t be cleansed took some breaths Other species pushed to corners found some space Life in water too took some leaps And spring blossomed prettier without the human chase
Times like this expose many truths Times like this can teach many lessons Times like this have come and gone Why don’t we still seem to catch the essence?
