Six creaking pairs of feet
Walk the line of duty
It is their drama to learn
Their karma awaits
Success is doubtful
It always is
For everyone
Certainty breeds contempt
Of self and others
They learn with very word
Every move
Every breath
They laugh and cry
For work and for pay
How much will depend
On how much they shed
Clothes or tears
It's a choice of life
Personal decision
Not many can make it
Break it
Fake it
To mould the body
The voice
The self
Into casts of every situation
Existential and created
Real and unreal
Is an art
Or craft as some say
The predisposition to learn and master might exist
Persist
To aspire is one
To escape another
The intent is the key
Same words can break or mend the soul
Breathe
For there will be many with wrong intents
Intentional or unintentional
You are alone
Misunderstood
And unheard
Bear it with an armor
Made of bone and muscle
Iron ones are fictitious
Made up to soothe a child's fantasy
It lies shattered with age
The pieces prick
Wounds that bleed are rare
In such situations
Hurt isn't tangible
Empirical measurement lies in textbooks
Hug that doll
It shall be with you forever
If you allow it
And fight the taunts
Turn deaf
Numb
Cold
It's the anti thesis of a fever
There are no analgesics
No pain killers
No blessed beads for protection
And definitely no shoulders
To cliched-ly cry on
Sympathy doesn't exist
Never did
So don't hope for it
Keep the hope for better things
It's what they all say
Advise
Preach
The ears ring with voices
That sound distasteful
If such a description is possible
But of course it is
Anything is
When the person sitting by you is living the life you want
It's uncanny
But you're jealous of the unknown
You can't curse it
You don't know it's name
Cuss the earth, the sun, the planetary positions
Most find respite in it
Now get back on that crowded bus
Hang on the high bars wishing you were taller
Thinner
Eyes watch
Judge
Leach
You ignore them like always
The ride is rickety and long
Six stops away
Eight signals that are always red
Does nothing go right
'Hahaha nope'
Says a voice in the cerebral cortex
Biology classes and twelfth
Then its a sepia journey until present
The stop comes
You squash your way out as your parts get squeezed
Private and public
Holds are loose and tight
Breathe
There is a rope hanging in the hardware shop
And then there were none
A twisted smile walks you home
There are no messages
The answering machine beeps
Red
Hollow
The fridge has bread
Eaten for five days now
The caps are left for todays dinner
Scrape off the jam
It tastes funny but worse has been ingested
Sickness hasn't haunted the bodice for a while
There is no consultation money
Incentive
There is class again tomo
The uncertain future awaits
Lines have to be learnt
Recited
In a thousand different ways
(4th June 2012)
