The Womb Beneath My Feet

By Praveen Prabhakar

All above you,

My first crawl,

My first walk,

All my life,

Trampling your vastness,

Milestones after milestones,

Carved in else’s expectations,

I have built,

I have failed,

I have conquered,

Forgetting my happiness,

Sometimes, I lived,

Sometimes, I loved

When I was tired,

I was no more breathless,

Lying lifeless,

With nothing to build,

With nothing to bid,

With nothing to hold,

I was buried,

In a mere six-feet of your vastness,

I was no more above you,

I was in your womb,

From a mother’s womb of life,

To a mother’s womb of death.

In your depth,

In your warmth,

You keep me clean,

Melting what was not mine,

Hiding my stench,

Purifying me,

Telling me,

This is real,

What I built above was just a dream.

By Praveen Prabhakar