My destiny has been decided.
My goal set.
No wall too high, no galaxy too vast, My path is carved.
I will move through anyone
who dares stand in between.
I rest only when I arrive.
I’m Arjun’s arrow
powerful, lean, unmerciful,
nirbhaya, nirvikalpa.
Power runs on my spine
like an armor alive.
Cold no more.
A shiver rises in my heart,
A conch of war rings in my ears,
unnerved, unchanged.
I did not choose this hour,
this hour knelt before me.
And today, the world feels suddenly
in motion.
Eyes linger on me with anticipation.
I feel their breath stilling as I pass.
Can you hear the ringing in your ear? That is destiny
cutting through air around me.
I was still for too long,
the thunder’s inhale.
Now the battle wind coils inside me
tight, electric.
The moment before release.
I am ready.
I cut through time and space
to greet the daughters of the bow,
the versions of myself who came before me.
Across lifetimes I see her
One softened the earth
with her quiet footsteps.
Another watered the path
with her wounds.
The wind remembers her.
The fire guards her name.
The world thought she was unmoving, but only I know
she was pulling me back,
sharpening my aim
so I could fly farther.
I am the arrow;
she is the bow.
The bow Gods fear to string.
When she finally chose me,
it was her breath
that steadied the trembling ground beneath my feet,
a thing of reckoning.
And so I rise now
sharp, sacred, destined;
only because the bow trembled,
broke,
and rebuilt itself
again and again
until it could carry me,
until it could be
worthy of releasing me.
A weapon blessed,
in blood and fire.
I do not miss.
***
Madras Courier originally ran as a broadsheet with a poetry section. It was a time when readers felt comfortable sharing glimpses of their lives through verse. If you have a poem you’d like to submit, do email us at [email protected].
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