I was asked one day,
“What is it that I fear the most?”
Before blurting out the answer,
I gave it a thought

I first thought of the dark;
Dark?
Well, we have been best of friends since so long;
I give it all my stories and in return it gives me songs.
Songs on the tunes of which only I can dance;
Songs that get me out of this agony and put me in trance!

Then I thought of being alone;
Alone?
How can I ever fear being alone,
When I have been with myself all along!
On the days when clouds of melancholy surrounded me;
I told myself stories that taught me how eventually we all see the light,
After the dark nights that are so long.

Then I thought of it a little more,
“What is that I actually fear?”
I sat with a pen and a paper;
To make a list of things that I fear,
And then I got my answer loud and clear!

Yes! I have a fear..
Fear of loosing..
No.. not loosing something or someone.
I fear loosing the words that naturally come to me,
When the darkness inside of me is overlooked by almost everyone.

Yes, I fear loosing the words that help me define,
That why sometimes staying all alone and hiding
myself in the dark, is no crime!

I fear loosing the words,
That have helped me so far,
To take with pride,
Each pain and every scar.

I fear loosing the words,
That help me shed the weight of their judgements off my chest;
I fear loosing the words,
In the worse of times which have made me feel my best.

So on getting my answer,
I turned to them,
And they keenly turned their eyes towards me,
I answered;
“I fear, loosing the way you all look at me”
They took it as a joke and they all laughed;
I too laughed back, deep inside I hi-fived myself & said,
“C’mon bud! You got a new draft!”

Yukti Trivedi