I see how fast the days are passing by,
as there’s so much that’s been on my mind,
soon I’ll be sixteen, eighteen, then twenty,
with a mind so clueless of where to be.

I may be just fourteen,
but it really concerns me,
everyone asks how I’ll be,
in my upcoming twenties.

I’ll have to be educated,
find a job that suits me,
one that also pays off well,
then a happy healthy family.

“Keep your eyes wide open
for a bright future ahead,
do not disappoint us”,
my parents said.

I’ve been questioned so many times
that I am now so worried,
soon I’ll be sixteen, eighteen, then twenty,
with a mind so clueless of where to be.

my heart yearns to write
my emotions yearn to be expressed
my thoughts yearn to be free.

i would give anything to satisfy these pleas
but alas, i cannot.

my pen won't write,
my keyboard busies itself with essays and research, and
my creativity has gone mute.

it feels like my soul is stuck, frozen in time,
trying to force out the pretty words that produced so easily before.

the more i try, the harder it gets
the more i lie, the number it gets
the more i cry, the easier it gets.

perhaps i need to come from a different approach, like i have today
just stop bullying my feelings, just stop wringing my mind,

and be content just letting it flow.

this is a tale
of two star-crossed lovers
with a love so powerful
they tainted the heavens
with bursts of colours

they were never meant to be;
mischievous little kids
finding love in sinful glee
in laughter, between dreams and reality

and though it was lawless,
they found solace
because in every prison,
they found a rhyme and a reason

but even for a love so great,
they could not escape
the fates’ wrath and envy

destiny pulled on their threads
cut them loose, thrusted them into misery;
for their memories were wiped clean,
but feelings remained as strong as they had ever been

the boy exiled in a far off land
across the pacific sea
the girl trapped in her need to break free
in a realm both boring and bland

ensnared in a labyrinth of woe
the lovers yearned for anything—
for something, for someone,
to obliterate this endless longing

the gods answered them
in the form of two loved ones
polished in every edge,
a perfect someone

but perfect felt too perfect
and not perfect enough
to fill up the hole
left by a perfectly imperfect

until one day the gods whispered
for the winds to push the two
and the birds to tug at their sleeves
over mountain and sea
even through the darkest valley
so their paths would finally meet

and so they did.

in the flurry of a moment
a pair of brown eyes met
and time was frozen
once more

the two stared intently
as if remembering a broken melody
a lost childhood song
branded as a wrong

the birds fluttered and flew
taking the cursed red fibre
snipped them in two
and the lovers felt all the lighter

it was the girl who spoke first:
“**** the stars.
i don’t want perfect,
i want you.”

eyes dazzling, the boy nodded:
“we’ll invert the universe—
the night sky a blank white
the stars pitch black
the earth moving in reverse”

the fates saw and surrendered
as the stars began to wither
for this love is love
in all its splendor

so the lovers walked away with a promise
under their breaths, they both swore:
“i lost you once,
but nevermore.”