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Strings

by Viveka Sah
(Mumbai, Maharashtra, India)

This is the girl of your dreams.
Watch her little broken body on the floor.
Watch her rise
And move, as she dances her dance.
The dance they make her do.
The dance that has shattered all her bones.
Ask her why and she says
‘Because it hurts if I don’t. But it hurts anyway.’
*
Tears roll down her cheeks as reminiscence flashes across ghostly eyes.
‘I was once at ease,’ she cries.
‘Unattached and happy. But then they caught me.
‘They twisted and pulled me into painful, wild shapes.’
Tight binding cords cut across her wrists.
Blood trickles down as she tries to wipe away her sweat.
‘I am no one.’
*
We live in a world of strings, moved through every day by the people we’ve come to detest.
By the people whom we think are greater than us.
By the people who live our lives for us.
But, you have to remember, these people are just like you and I.
They’re hurting too, they’ve been sat upon too.
Every single one of us is a puppet.
Destined to live our lives in chains.
*
But
Looking up at your puppeteers, you eventually realise
Their words; their strings are fragile
With a cautious glance, you snap one in two
Then gleefully cut away all those years of heartbreak
Everything that ever held you back now melts away
You find out that the monsters have no hold over you, not really
Not when you have this much power in you.
*
This is the girl of your dreams
Watch her dance her dance
The dance that embodies her spirit
The dance that she created for herself
The dance that is the reason you love her.
Ask her why, and she says
‘Because I deserve all the love in the world.’