Wishing a better world

I would still like to believe in a world

where people won’t break down

fragile hearts and step on glass castles of dreams,

where people wearing heart on sleeves

would be an ordinary phenomenon,

where women will actually be respected

and appreciated more than just in poems and quotes,

where gays and lesbians will be more human

than just being sexually different,

where we will blush through a same-sex couple

as we do to others, a world where

we still enjoy walking through parks holding our

grandparents’ hands and listen to their bed

stories instead of throwing them out on roads.

 

I would still like to believe in a world where

men won’t be called weak for being cry

babies and showing all their vulnerabilities

for isn’t it all normal if you’re hurt and you

cry and necessarily not be a woman to

do that? for we often associate crying with

a woman calling it cowardly because it just

makes a man less of one, does it? and tell me

why on earth, I still crave for “happily ever afters”,

is that even possible in a world where

hearts are more fragile than butterfly wings

and people just get done and dusted with love

over messages, not heeded to even explain.

 

I would still like to believe in a world where

we needn’t sham down genders or people

for that matter, where women will not be

condemned to live against her wish where

letting her get married late and access to

education will not be called privileges in

a society that otherwise marries off a girl

at 18 because that is her right and rightly so,

where feminism will mean both equity and

equality, where men won’t be asked to pass

a seat to women because they can have a bad day

and tired too, where a transgender won’t be

looked upon with disgust and hate of not being

the same as us, but more beautiful by hearts.

 

I would still like to believe in a world where

it will be as normal giving birth to a third

gender baby as it is to any other and that

society wouldn’t ask any parents to let go

of their babies being born different.

And isn’t being different is all about being

unique in their own ways? for how I wish

things to get a little less complex than we

actually make out of it, for I wish only rainbows

had colors and not the humans for which

they seek to demean and kill, for I am a sucker

for a sphere where there live just the religions of

“humanity” and “love” and gods just look better

inside temples, churches, and mosques

otherwise brings havoc to civilizations.

 

I would still like to believe in a world where

a girl isn’t called a slut for being big breasted

and shame for flat-chested, where a woman

is as human as a man and not a commodity

to bid on, where men will be told to change

perspectives than asking women to wear more

clothes, where honors killings won’t be as normal

because your honor shouldn’t lie in

a girl’s vagina, don’t call her sacred at daylight

and rape the hell out of her at night, for this time

just a little respect won’t do, we bloody

want our equal rights.

 

I would still like to believe in a world where

a girl following her passion, or a boy just marrying

off against the family, or just a

child choosing his own dreams, or love

 a same-sex person will all be okay to a

a society that follows a rule book for every

another thing on this earth, for we are still

running short on people who admire,

encourages, enlightens and drags people

out of glooms and be told it is fine; fine

being a rebel, being different, wanting to

live on their own terms.

 

I would still like to believe in a world where

smiles can light up one’s whole wide world,

where books will make people fall in love

all over again just as it did before the

advancements of the mechanical world,

where butterflies on the stomach will make a

a better person, where hope prevails to let 

a person live a little longer than he/she is

meant to, where being able to trust someone

will be as easy as a-b-c and we needn’t be

blaming one other of betrayals because

there won’t be any.

 

 

– Bhargobi Talukdar

Poet

Email @ angelmaina40@gmail.com