Tasnia Shahrin
I.
Born for a Thousand Cuts
I was born a thousand times
For thousands of reasons,
to run thousands of miles.
But each time I try to recall,
The purpose of these petty lives –
A million of models
Appear in front of me.
Not one of them resembled what I like.
Be a doctor or be a scientist,
Wear a stethoscope and
Read their heart beats.
But remember
Not to do it for free,
As money precedes humanity.
While my dreams become
Like the dust of a star,
My memories are locked away
With my old guitar,
I hope one day this silly pressure shuts,
To save thousand deaths by a thousand cuts.
II.
Birth: A Tragedy
It all began with
birth, then life.
Then death, then the afterlife,
Then reincarnation.
In this cycle,
I draw the dawn
with sharp splinters
of my broken dreams.
And watch the stars
Bleed from the sky.
But by the time
They care,
By the time
They realise,
By the time
It all clicks,
I’ll be one of the stars
Watching them,
As they still expect
a title of prestige
In my tombstone.
III.
Rebirth
Yesterday—I was the universe,
Today—just a dawn.
Something in me moves.
My past versions are gone.
I’m building myself again.
Just like a house,
Where the ground is courage,
And the walls are passion,
And the roof is a masterpiece of kindness.
I’m building myself again.
All from the scratch.
Hope the society accepts me
And I am its utopian match.
The writer is a part of the TDA Editorial Team.