In my eyes I carry my father’s rage and my mother’s sorrow

Khamoshi ki aahat me sukoon ki talaash hai,

Kuch lamho ke saaye me apne gam bhulane na jane kyu aas hai,

Duniya ke dastoor ka kuch alag hi hisaab hai,

Yaha toh har kale dil vale ka paise se zameer hota paksaaf hai.

Yaha maine logo ki baato ko khanjar sa hota dekha hai,

Pyaar ki baarish me logo de dilon ko khanjar sa hota dekha hai.

Ye kalyug hai janab,

Yaha kisi ajnabi ko kaha dil todne ka haq hai,

Ye toh apno ka bhi gair hojane vala vaqt hai.

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I sit on the kitchen floor, picking up the broken pieces of me,

I sit on the kitchen floor, dusting my memories of distant and forbidden glee.

The fondness of innocence in its yonder engulfed my core,

Time in its agonizing flair rendered the goodness of life on the kitchen floor.

Eloquence that blinded in its sophisticated grace,

The ideals of deemed morality I ought to embrace.

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Earthing the distant fallacies of their patriarchal minds,

Making lists of my imperfections, the ardour of a brighter future they would find.

Propelled by ferocity I shattered their counterfeited notions of my prescribed tomorrow,

Uncultured and untamed they screeched, but in my eyes, I carried my father’s rage and my mother’s sorrow.

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I am my father’s daughter, for I embody the rampage that shatters their firm destitute of who I should be,

I am my mother’s daughter, for I embrace all the light that in the darkness the world cannot see.

I am my father’s daughter, and I chose to unlearn the generational curses that bore their trace

I am my mother’s daughter and I chose to unlearn that silence is the only weapon that serves solace.

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As I sat on the kitchen floor, picking up every torn piece of me

Through the crevices of my soul, in silent strides, seeped the vision of who I could be.

In the quest to find my purpose, the stealing glances of hope enveloped around,

In the conquest of who I was and who I am becoming, the stability of life I found.

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For I behold the light that enrages the stars,

In the embellishment of my odyssey, I embraced the beauty of my scars.

-Hridya Sharma