And one day you look,
Look piercingly deeper,
Or are forced to listen,
What you wish were lies.
To find that a truth
You had built yourself upon
Had been so volatile all along;
Leaving your organs strewn apart.
Maybe it was a heart you thought you knew,
A heart you so desperately believed in,
Believed in its benevolence and its will;
But found had just as weak and crooked a beat.
Or worse, knew something about yourself,
But found not even you can avoid change,
Watching your skin fall off,
Until you’re left beyond recognition.
Or a belief you were so certain about,
That limbs are meant to be tied together,
And that shadows of the cave,
Are all there is to see.
Until someone slits the jute,
And you crawl out the cave,
Feel the texture of wood,
See the colours for yourself.
It scares us. Terrifies, in fact.
We run back inside,
Pick up the jute,
And beg to be tied again,
So we can go back,
To looking at the familiar shadows,
And not let go,
Of the reality we thought we knew.
-Kreetik Thakur, Amity International School, Noida
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