The Weight of Wanderlust

By Rishika Agarwal

You had put a bird in a cage,

wistful to fly.

Now you extract fool’s god

and wonder why it doesn't fly.

She sings symphonies to others

but cries a symphony of silence to herself.

Echoes of forgotten dreams are heard

in the garden that never bloomed,

where roots were present

but there was no sunlight and no one to water.

She slides into a library

to find unwritten stories

whose dust is now its skin.

With hopes’ last whisper,

she sits at night

to see fireflies and stars fading from her into the horizon

when her veiled power dropped from her eyes.

By Rishika Agarwal