Before I say I quit
Let me tell you a few things,
I tried a lot harder than you think;
The days that began with your judgments,
Were often followed by sleepless nights and my soul screaming.

Screaming so bad that it tore my skin;
Wounds of my soul were all over my body,
But for you, I was just getting thin.

Hey! Did you ever mean it when you said, ‘I care’?
Because when I was supposed to fly high,
You put weights on my chest, that I could never bear!

So tell me, did you really meant it when you said you care?

Every day I wake up with my eyes swollen,
And a heavy heart filled with pieces of dreams that are broken.
I look in the mirror and I cannot recognize myself anymore,
As if a big part of me is stolen.

Stolen, even before I knew;
I totally lost myself to fit into your shoes.

So before I say, I quit,
Let me tell you,
I tried a lot harder to be like you.

But today I quit,
I quit walking the path you paved for me,
And walk the one I paved for me.

Yukti Trivedi