The Fear of Letting Go

By Smriti Mishra

In the cradle of a waning moon,

The tides hum a restless tune.

Waves reach out, then pull away,

Unsure if they should break or stay.

A bird perches on a trembling bough,

Wings poised, but still somehow.

The sky calls soft, the winds reply,

Yet fear whispers, “What if I die?”

A cloud clings tight to the setting sun,

Hues of amber, the day undone.

It knows it must dissolve to rain,

Yet holds its shape, bound by pain.

A child stands at the ocean’s seam,

Clutching sand, chasing a dream.

The grains slip through, a golden stream,

And loss feels sharper than it may seem.

The soul resists the winds of change,

Bound by threads both tight and strange.

The fear of falling, of losing ground,

Chains us where we’re safely bound.

But what if falling births the flight?

What if shadows lead to light?

What if loss unveils the way,

To find a brighter, freer day?

The leaf must drop, the seed must break,

The heart must bend before it wakes.

For letting go, though steep and wide,

Is where life blooms on the other side

By Smriti Mishra