Unveiling Myself

By Pratishtha Kumari

From whom can I hide forever?

Even from my own reflection I’ve drawn a curtain of silence.

Why do I keep slipping away from the world,

fleeing the very place

where I could shape a new universe of my own?

Life’s pathways are laced with quiet splendour;

at every turning, a hush of light waits for me.

I need only take a single step,

and watch how even my wildest dreams

can crystallize into reality.

Let me not vanish from the family

whose every breath carries the rhythm of my own.

Let me not turn away from the hearts

that kindle their glow in the lantern of my smile.

If I must hide, let it be only from my own darkness.

Let me shatter the distance I have kept from myself,

let the uproar of my heart settle into a deep hush,

until my name gleams—

steadfast—along the luminous path of what is good.

By Pratishtha Kumari