Category: Poems

I grew up.
It means that I don’t dwell on what I cannot control:
emotions and feelings,
the abstract,
an opinion,
a mind-set.

It means I am not interested in trying to change
something — or someone — that can’t.
We yell about environmental disaster,
but we don’t care about it;
we care about our future.
I am not interested in selfish rhetoric.

Children run with guns
and kill other children,
yet there is no end to gun shopping.
I have grown up.
So I understand how controlling women’s bodies
is more important than gun control.

I studied literature.
I have read history.
I learnt the horrors that war can manifest.
But when I grew up,
I understood that there are Iagos in the world,
who revel in motiveless malignity.
The power of a weapon is the only thing
that can promote uneasy peace.

I yearned for liberation.
I walked the walks.
I talked the talks.
As I grew up, I realised:
the leaders who walked ahead
were pretending to be woke,
under the guise of their materialistic agendas.

I get quieter with the passing years.
I smile when I have things to say.
I know how to deal with my tears.
I grew up late and slow —
but on doing so, I have begun to question
every little thing I know.