You - A Reluctant Bunbury

There was a time when falling out was unintentional, or intentionally quiet,

Getting up was the thing, a thing within, a long-cherished dream,

Where you were fed to keep going, you were supposed to make things happen.

The syllables you got to know, you have to know or you need to know were of the bare syllabus,

“Stay away from literary profanities. You are a prodigy. Yo.” They said, you believed.

Yes you believed, glad to be a partner in credo, yes you perceived happiness.

Yes you got lost in the world of forces, inertia and momentums. Yes the world of molecules, bonds, matter and energy was the solace comprehended,

Yes the tracheids and the vessels, the carbohydrates and sugars, the enzymes made up your systems,

You built a world, you built a wall around your world,

You were judged by the answers you wrote, not how well you wrote but how well you rote,

The grades were the only savior of your seemingly exhausted opportunities, the god’s penny,

Like the grades were all you work for, you live for, you die for.

Now,

Now I know where you went wrong, were always wrong,

They feared, apprehended, anticipated discernment, and you

You like an impeccable destitute apportioned your share of fright,

Your stupendous ingenuity, your ingenuous stupidity.

Now I know they were a demented civilization,

And you, even worse, a fool for a promised fool’s paradise,

Now I know a whole world exists outside the theories of science and maths and economics,

A world of lives, a world of people, a world of stories, a world of unrelenting marches people make, a world of nourished dreams,

A world full of the symphony of arts, the cacophony of history, the glamour of literature, the interminable swath of culture, the eternal beauty of philosophy,

A world of glorified simplicity, simply a world within

A little of these had never hurt anyone,

Neither an excess of it.

Except you,

Except us,

Too afraid to take a chance

Too afraid to make a course correction

Too afraid to not fear the unknown

Too afraid to embrace what has lived through thousand years of human civilization

Too afraid to endure time-tested human nobilities

Too afraid to try something new, once, even just for once

They were afraid, you were afraid

It has always been that way.

And here you are,

Speculative in the afterglow

Lost in the afterthoughts

What did you miss?

What didn’t you suffice?

When our fellow humans have been mapping out the perimeters of the space and galaxies,

When our fellow humans have been enriching our world with new words and ideas, new ways to love, live, enjoy,

When our fellow humans have been devising wonders after wonders,

When our fellow humans have been making us proud,

You sit quietly, completing your daily quota of 9-5 jobs

Glued to the LCD screens

Glued to the headphones

‘Why didn’t we?’

‘Why can’t we?’

Lamenting, Resenting, Stewing

For a lost chance

A lost generation

A lost you

A lost us.

Oh! What a waste.

---------------------------------------------------

Avoid me on @anupdgn