Shroud of Solidarity

By Srishti Ladha

Garland, a woman’s ornament,

Strength, a man’s;

Why do we plant this stigma, bifurcate it all to consolidate the walls built up high to fragment what could have been,

Oh how we classify, giving reasons to justify,

How the societal norms need to apply

If he wants to do his nails,

To fit into the society he fails;

When she wails, it is because it is in her nature,

After all isn’t she just emotional and frail;

If he cries, no matter how hard he tries to stay afloat beneath the disparaging boulder,

he isn’t strong enough, all because he expressed he was hurting

The raging fire for the fight for equality is called highly unnecessary,

Because their expression is apparently all for seeking attention and underserved validation,

Murder of the body is justiciable under law,

But the liquidation of the mind is considered an abhorrent flaw.

There are those who choose not to reside within the hollow walls fabricated by the society;

The leaden burden of the choice always weighing on their minds which seek to one day be able to live within the mirage they created where they aren’t pariahs.

They built walls to ‘keep safe’ they say,

Safe from the opinions and choices that threaten the ‘solidarity’ of the society;

The ‘solidarity’ which under the cloak of morality,

manages to demoralize the existence of so many.

We are but a mélange of souls, each soul bearing the smudges of the cost it has had to pay, living in an abattoir of abstract ideas and incognito individualities;

For those being consumed by the disease of invalidating the uncustomary, I do not wish upon you the torment you inflict;

I wish for you the remedy for the contagion that plagues your existence before you manage to taint another troubled mind.

By Srishti Ladha