The Lion in Winter

What a dreadful feeling,
Waking up in the morning
Knowing the storm is coming
If you make it through the day.

Should we be ashamed?
Or should we walk tall through the rain?
Hoping we’ll be too cold to break
When it’s time to double down or raise the stakes.

Nothing less is apparently something more
So after we drown maybe we’ll wade ashore?
If we force our hearts and minds to hold on
Maybe someone could put the lights back on?

Only a couple lifetimes of struggling casually,
Of looking perfect while devastated internally.
Strutting through life with massive chips on our shoulders,
With hearts that weep, but eyes that smoulder.

Caged by the trappings of our charmed existence
Standing side by side with acres of distance.
If only love and money mended prejudice and pride,
Wouldn’t have been such a hell of a roller coaster ride.

After years of sighing instead of crying
Thinking about our lives and their secret colours
It seems there is no more use in running
This is the reality we survived others to weather.

But a serendipitous chance nonetheless
To discover true friends and the tipping point of sanity,
Acquire all the experiences of biographic interest,
And challenge substance dependency.

The cruelty of making us undo everything we’ve done,
Shielding reputation once dignity’s undone,
Like playing russian roulette with that loaded gun,
Trying to forget all the battles we fought and won.

The tragedy of knowing the truths that we conceal
Even Achilles got shot at the heel
“As if it matters how we fall down…”
“When the fall’s all that’s left, oh it matters a great deal.”

-Tannisha Avarrsekar