Tandem

By Akshika Singh

I didn’t want to kill her,

But I didn’t have an option.

It was either me making it painless,

Or the merciless world with its torture.

I did what I had to,

For I didn’t want her to suffer.

Her, who was so oblivious

To the cruelties of this world.

She had a heart of gold,

Kind but pliable.

She was beautiful, but naïve.

The world isn’t nice to people like her;

And so, to survive,

I had to kill the child I once was.

I still see her sometimes,

When I face myself in the mirror.

I still see her in my smiles,

Stretched from ear to ear.

We humans are like snakes, in a way.

They shed skin, while we shed our old selves.

We all kill bits of us to survive, to live;

Being life and death in tandem.

By Akshika Singh