Under the stars.

When they asked me 

to address the whole world 

that stood before me 

with hopeful eyes, I was 

left alone to fight 

the surfacing tide 

of emotions towards 

my own journey 

of successes and failures, 

of friends and acquaintances, 

of long lost world and the 

new one emerging ahead of me. 

I could not gather my 

words and emotions 

into voice that I always heard. 

I stopped looking, 

I ignored the pleas, 

I resisted the temptations to flee.

.

I don't know 

why they asked me. 

Maybe because I was 

born in this world 

and was certain to 

fade away, at the first 

chance of ambush. 

Maybe it was rather 

due to the fact 

that several things go unnoticed 

when you are allowed 

to move 

but when you have all the 

patience you need 

to sit and observe, 

you tend to notice. 

Or maybe it was 

simply because I was born, 

just like the millions and 

billions of people who 

descend through the 

steps of womb and blood. 

.

So I was asked to address. 

Address them about life, 

that we all seem to occupy. 

Some for long and 

some for a small time. 

I resisted my urge 

to scream and rather simplify. 

There was no need 

to make me so glorified. 

I was also one of them, 

plucked out from the 

crowd at random, 

thrown on the stage 

of fake jubilance. 

Maybe it was not 

all my scars but also 

the presence of some astrological stars.

.

The sky was dark again, 

dark and cloudless. 

Full of bright stars 

which were at times 

dwindled by the city's luminescence and sky lanterns. 

One look at the crowd, then 

I glared at stars, 

glared cause they have 

also been part of this farce. 

Showing us light 

even when they were 

destroyed in that great expanse.

.

I do nothing, 

and the crowd disperse. 

Some cursing, 

some just waking up 

from trance. And then 

it was me 

alone on this world's stage, 

with those dead 

and dying stars.

.

- Raj Nandani