I Am A Book

By Mallika Chandrasekhar

Figuratively

I am a book

In the library

Of human stories

You can find parts of me

Between the pages

Of the hardbound copy

A bit of comedy

Some tragedy

A bit of drama

Some soulfulness too

My whole life laid bare

In a book, it's all there

Everything about me

Is held by a spine

Glued my truth

Unembellished, unadorned

There have only been a few readers

Of my life story though

It's pretty intense

Experiences and events

The many lows

The miserable let downs

The failures, the struggles I tell you

I am a book

Not for the fainthearted certainly

There have been moments

Of incredulous courage, I do agree

As well as resilience that is inspiring

But there are also moments

Of deep despair

Life has not always been fair

There are parts that I am ashamed of

The times I gave up

Walked away from a situation

Relationships I couldn’t handle

I have made a mess

Instead of resolving a conflict

I choose the easy way out

There are things I am not proud of

And it’s all right in there

In a book hardbound

On one of the shelves

Of the human library

Somewhere

Between hope and horror

Between memoir and fiction

Between surrealism and realism

So, on a visit next time

To this library of human stories

Could you kind of pick, choose, and read

My book, please?

By Mallika Chandrasekhar