Don't tell me how to live

Don’t speak to me of accomplishments
Or moving on with the same gusto.
I am just hanging in there
Burning the debris of sentiments
Scribbling a new manifesto.

It’s been a crazy year
And a crazier one before that.
It takes time to resurrect
Time to assimilate,
The world isn’t flat.

Don’t speak to me of love
Or the possibility even
There was a time for dreams
A time, when I was really driven.
The candle light has lost its sheen
And ‘foolish twice’ is not forgiven.

I am no Cinderella lost to cynicism
Just a woman trying not to lose.
Don’t tell me ‘how to’ live
Coz when it comes to survival
You don’t get to choose.

The Play Called Life

Along the Ghats
Unborn saints kneel on stone altars
Impregnating the Ganges with prayers.
Through a thousand day-dreams
The river carrying corpses
Promises Moksh
Or a possible epiphany.

Along the ghats
The indifferent stylus
Writes
Erases
Rewrites
The script of life.