I manage to breathe
Somehow,
Struggling on, suppressed
From an invisible ridge
Missed by those
With a long nose
No grey building stands over me
(Yet)
I am still green and young
Still innocent, still hopeful
Until a metal something invades me,
Betrays me
Deroots me
Until life trickles out of me
Feel the cool aromatic soil
After the rain
Tis is me
Feel the brown branches entwined
Outside your window
Tis is me
I’m there in your taps, drains
Even in your build
But everyday I’m degraded
For crimes I did not commit
I’m spent ruthlessly
Contaminated by perfidy
And avarice
Until I’m brown
And ‘Impure’
Until life trickles out of me
I feel stifled
Suffocated
I am stuck in a vortex of confusion
An inescapable pain,
By using some
Destructive chemistry
That transparent devil
It is there;
In every inch of me
Digging and obstructing
Until this anomaly sinks
And kills every Thirp in me
One by one
Until life slowly trickles out of me
How forlorn!
How desolate!
I marvel at your bravado!
You create things out of me
While demolishing me
Releasing the
‘Smoke of dishonesty’
A grey gas of cupidity
I laugh at your scorn
Until life trickles out of me
Some more
They try to end this devastation
A few blessed souls
Between an unfortunate pandemic
Alive, I rose
Enamored by care
I rekindled in the sky
While mankind suffered in silence
As I did all this time
A few saviors,
Those who plant more of me
Those who use the solar
In plenty
I am humbled at your initiation
Grateful, I am
For this salve on my burning soul
To save whatever life is
Left in me.
By Rucha Katkar
XII E
