CREATIVES|KAVERI TALUKDER
White rain
Against a dark black sky.
Muddy dirt
Clings to my
Worn-out shoes.
In I walk
To a mirrored hallway,
Where no mirror showed my
True reflection.
Different people
Wait for me inside each mirror.
“Tick, tock,
Tick, tock,
Is it time?”
“Come to me,”
They sing.
The shackles
On their wrists and ankles
Run deep.
“Come to me,
Then you can let go,
Of worrying about others,
And give them a taste of
Their own medicine.”
“Come to me,
I’ll prove to you that
You are better than the
Mere mortals
Of this world.”
“Come to me,
I'll give you all the things
You desire without
Worrying about the consequences.”
I look each person in the eye,
I will never allow
These parts of me to
Dominate over
The kinder parts of me.
“Tick, tock,
Tick, tock,
Is it time?”
“Come to me,”
They sing.
I reach the
End of the hallway,
And open the
Dark cobbed-up door,
A child sat in the middle of a
Dark and wrecked room,
Silently sobbing.
“Hey, it’s okay,
I’m here now,
I’ll take care of you.”
I tell the child as
I engulf them in a hug.
It is time,
It was time.
For so long
I have abandoned the child,
From now on
I will comfort them.
From now on,
I will comfort the child,
Within me,
Rather than hiding them away.