Deglee Degi in Unsplash

Hollow

Fictional Free Verse

i wake up every day
ready to tick off items
from a to-do list
that never seems to end

i tell myself —
i’m making progress,
results take time

but the truth
breaks its restraints
far more often
than i care to accept

and on those days,
the sheer futility
of my to-do list
comes barreling
like an avalanche

i hear the thunder
of revelations
and they sound
ominous

once more,
my carefully constructed
egg-shell cocoon
will shatter

i will see myself
for what i am —
another nobody
in a string of nobodies

shuffling along
oblivious to time,
shoulders bowed,
mere wire and string
in perpetual motion

aimless,
blank,
hollow

© Indira Reddy 2020