Embrace of Tears

Reshma Anil Kumar | 06, Sep 2022

Embrace of Tears

 I have grown up

From that time when I thought

Those labels that brought me near-salvation

Were everything.

Enlightened now, I see how futile those were,

Those labels that do not exclusively incorporate me,

Weren’t everything

Even in a world,

Of labels and categories

Of eagle-eyed looks,

Staring eagerly like hawks

To make a show of my confession

Of who I really am.

My confession makes those eagle-eyes

Turn inwards with the question,

“What all do I have to see,

To hear in this lifetime of mine?”

As if me, my labels, categorizations…

Are all burdens,

While I am actually

Opening my hands in invitation

To share their own blood and tears

With the promise of INCLUSION.

My, now, longer legs and bigger eyes

Take in the beauty in Sharing Vulnerabilities,

Those vibrantly coloured vulnerabilities,

With the lessons of blood and tears,

I realize that discrimination and marginalization

Is not a game like Olympics 

Has never been one

To be won by the either team.

Lending a hand to those different,

Dripping the same blood as me,

Crying the same tears as me,

Doesn’t make my pain any lesser.

Rather I gain a warm hand

Enclosing mine,

Supporting mine,

Growing into a much warmer hug

And a promise of INCLUSION

Through Shared Vulnerabilities.