This piece is about people like me, who get scared easily, who have low self-confidence and sometimes wish to be considered strong and flammable.
I rise with smokes of denials
practiced over and over to not
to bend with piercing stares
and heavy voices that pin me
to the wall of fragility to melt
me down in a molten lava that
can me made to condone and
can be confined within walls
that scream to me in days too
short and nights too long with
broken sentences that intend
to break me too with the belief
that I don’t belong to anyone or
anywhere and that I’ll succumb
one day to my scars that now
seem irreparable for they still
press against my throat when
I try to curve my lips around all
the defiance I was taught before
I was spilled out unwillingly but
what they often forget about is,
the volcano I erupted from.
By Muskaan Bhagat
About Muskaan:
Being a student from Jaipur, she is a reserved person with a genuine interest in discovering people and places. She has performed in various poetry slams like Turquoise Frames and Coloured Ink. Currently in her 16s, she has a goal of publishing her own poetry book some day.
Artwork by Katty Huertas