Once, I dreamed a dream like none other
Even if the dream would seem like any other
In my heart I knew it was quite well and true
And yet not too true that it be a lost wonder
–
I’d known it to be a world of many vices
Of slippery tongues, of bruising avarices
I too was tainted, but not entrenched or entangled
Perhaps just too naïve to see through the disguises
–
My dream, while true, knew it was tainted too
Its innocence couldn’t stand in a world of you
You who came and ripped it apart so brazenly
You who felt no shame, while I felt abused
–
My dream lay forgotten, as I remained comatose
A dream of your horrors began as the sun rose
My nights, sleepless and red rimmed, ghosted by
I gave up the ghost; reckoned you’d never feel remorse
–
I used to pray before God died as a folly of my past
Perhaps a part of me lamented but I was already too aghast
Now I could only see a world filled with the likes of you
You disabused my rosy view and gave me a cynical start
–
Yet every night I eluded sleep, for such were my dreams
A hardened soldier could weep hearing the silent screams
Of incredulity, of helplessness and agony, of vain pleading
As the sadistic pleasure in your eye would mockingly gleam
–
The others tried every other cure; law has always been invalid
And psychiatric help at the very best can be futile and insipid
It wasn’t until I met someone who’d met someone like you
That I felt I was being quite self-absorbed and painfully stupidz
–
I realized by wasting away life I was making a huge blunder
A victim I may be but you would win if I would surrender
My dream may have borne spite, but it was born incorruptible
It would withstand your terror, it would not be torn asunder
–
My glasses never were rosy, but selectively typhlotic
Before you came I was apathetic, when you left I was pathetic
It wasn’t until I met someone who’d met someone like you
That I realized I wanted to be that someone; someone empathetic
–
In a world filled with the likes of you, lone victim I cannot be
Yes, I’m a victim due to you, the law, the society, but never due me
I’m an atheist, I’m a believer, I’m a man, I’m a woman, I’m a survivor
You’re none; you’re a soulless monstrosity; and that’s all you’ll ever be
–
– Akanksha Gupta
