Are you here, listening to me?

Is my silence speaking out to you, can you hear my heart pounding?

Can you sit me with me while I tell you a little about my dreams,

Which keep on sparkling inside me, asking for themselves to be realized?

I need space, air, and a large empty bucket,

To fill my emotions and tears in as I tell you about them.

Wait, before I open up,

Do you promise me, that my words won’t go unnoticed,

That when I say it all, I actually feel like I’ve said it all?

Do you promise me, that you won’t be like others,

Who crushed my dreams under the titles of “weird, stupid, or are you for real?”

Wait, let me think again,

Should I do this? Should I?

For the times still ring loud in my mind,

Times the world punished me for chasing my stars,

Times the world made me give up on myself for apparently it was all too hard.

I am afraid of opening up again,

I am afraid of falling again.

Maybe I should keep them and pile them all up inside

And let you and the world witness it all at once.

Taking a shape, a form, visible to the eye,

For its hard to get for you all, what’s residing in anyone’s heart.

Are you here, listening to me?

Can you sit with me while I tell you a little about my dreams,

Which still sparkle inside me, asking for themselves to be realized?

Do you promise me, that you will take my hand,

Then gently and politely, assure me that I can?

                                                                                  ~Summiaya Nilofer Kichloo

                                                                             Kishtwar, India