My mind tells me stories

By Vanshita, B.A. Honours Sociology

Edited by Nandana

My mind tells me stories

I wish I couldn't hear

That I’ll never be loved,

That what I desire is always too far,

That I don’t deserve what I have,

No matter how much I work,

How hard I try,

How desperately I fight to prove it wrong.

Days blur into months,

Months into years,

And I step hesitantly into the second chapter of my twenties.

Too slow, too lost, too unlike the rest.

Not the perfect face,

Not the perfect body,

Not the perfect mind

Just a shadow trailing behind.

What do I have?

Only words, spilling onto pages

No one will ever read,

Echoing into silence,

Dissolving into nothing.

Perhaps my fate is already written

Perhaps I will vanish,

Like Sylvia before me.