Vices

By Vanshika Srivastava

All summer long, what I dreaded was
to be held and fend for.
‘Cause once the body finds
comfort in the shiver of life,
dare she fall she would realise,
it was an eternal winding pathway
to her to her demise .
Disguised as the elixir, she dreamt of as a child.

‘Oh no!’ they say— 
beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder.
But cleverness and wit were famished,
for the world then and there decided
that they were just the devil’s creed.
Something never having the choice
to even just wish to be free.

Never again, I swore,
would I crunch the leaves in their fear,
shatter glasses or bid the kind slumber away.
I would unclench my hand, and parade
with all the faith I can muster
to break free, to breakthrough,
to stop the poison of the solace I feign from
my trials and my vices.