we try.

- Shamona

we were pushed out into this world of

half-hearted love and fake ‘forevers’

plopped into a house made of four walls

bricks laid of insecurities

and cemented by society

we were taught, neck bent,

to pray to imaginary men above our heads

tormenting our lives through white marbled gas chambers

the very ones we call ‘temples’

we bowed down our heads, to these other equally imaginary men,

fooling us the same way with harsh voices with parchment and pen

we cite them as the “national parliament:

we lived a life of morning groans and cries

walking to institutions which told us not to use our minds

ruled us over with steel bent rulers,

we mastered the art of lying,

fed spoonfuls to others and to ourselves.

we found solace in alien hands,

which always left us at the end

we tried to let the light in,

hammered down brick walls,

only to reveal a steel one.

we lived through tumblr and relatable memes

through hashstags and ‘message seen’

drowned away thoughts in tawny clouds.

but contentment has never been our strong suit,

we know that the universe was out of reach,

there were many others in stars beyond.

yet, we seemed to have centred the stars on us

we did not know of subtlety, we were never satisfied

we built skyscrapers and maybe a dozen other

but when that wasn’t enough,

we tied a rope between the two and tried to walk on it

memories are synonymous with facebook likes

we have never been a generation,

we still haven’t time traveled or eliminated poverty

we have been pawns in a game of chess with no winner

hysterics have always been our backrest,

we tried to grasp that there were things we could not heal,

worlds we could not rule

but goddamn it if we’re not going to try.