By: Shagnik Saha

I can’t see, fragile sepals shroud me,
Wisps of the sun I glimpse,
I hear the tumult, distant melody,
Unlike the calm inside, suffocating insanity,
There is so much to do,
So much to be,
All,
If I’ll ever see..

Seasons change and days do too,
There is just so much more,
Than Just me and you,
Fallen comrades tell me so,
Joy can be bought outside,
Happiness too maybe?
So I yearn, For the world that awaits me..

Storms are raging out there,
Seasons are changing again,
Everything is calm in here,
Too calm for me to be,
I grow stronger by the minute,
My petals throb with passion,
My own aroma intoxicates me,
As I get ready to set me free…

At the first crack of dawn,
My battle is on, I push, I pull,
My new strength,
Much too for my keepers it seems,
For they don’t stop me,
Simply turn aside,
To set me free..

I burst forth into the world,
I so longed for,
Arms thrown I beam out,
To the world, where I believed,
I was awaited for…

Alas,
I was so wrong,
This isn’t my song I hear,
Life has no meaning here,
Birth and death, all the same,
Killing for bits of paper,
Giving birth for the same,
Someone yanks me from my family,
I scream, I cry, no one listens to me,
I am bleeding, can’t he see…

I am thrown,
Among a million mirror images of me,
All in pain,
All are dying,
This is what I was yearning for..

I’m gifted to a young girl,
She smiles,
Her eyes shine,
Alas, Only momentarily,
She holds onto me,
As she sees her family burning in the distance..

People smiling, people laughing, people so proud,
Blame others and burn the evidence,
Is it just a coincidence?
Her shaking fists ball around me,
My thorns must be hurting her,
But it seems,
Her life has been more painful than I’ll ever be..

Was this the world I so longed for,
Where has it all gone, Friendship, Love and Innocence,
All mists of days bygone,
But I won’t stop singing,
Not till my petals are dust,
‘Cause I know,
That’s how, this needs to be.