POETRY

Oh, to Be Selfless for the Selfish!

some people are too good for this world

Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash

You are too mortal to burn yourself in a
fire that warms everyone but engulfs you,
melt the dying iron and scald your fingers
to mask and mold it into something new.

You are too fragile to be a stout vessel
that carries solicitude for all things living,
welling up with tears you cry for those who
strip you of your kind soul while you keep
relentlessly giving.

You are too naïve to be walking barefoot
among those thriving on hostility and conceit,
they’d make homes out of your gelatin bones
while you devote your last breaths to mend the
world complete.

Oh, to be selfless for the selfish!
feeding off of you till you’re turned to dust,
for you might have everything the world needs
but nothing it hasn’t already abused and crushed.

©Arundhati Thakur 2020