Musings

She could no longer ignore

The trilling of a bird,

Flying high, flying free.

Eager, she presses her nose

up against the cold glass pane.

The gentle warm light of setting sun;

Pink clouds that dance and laugh in evening fun;

Busy twittering birds of carefree manner,

Slow chugging cars - of green of red - all delight her.

She wills her eyes to open wider.

Her ears, she tells, to listen harder,

Her nose twitches gently in a bid

to smell the grass, the sun, the pattering feet.

Colours of joy, of life and laughter

Swirl and beckon happily before her.

But before long, this happy song,

Fades into quiet - the quiet of black.

Black. The claustrophobic colour.

The feast before her eyes no more

Her eyes slide downwards to the floor.

No longer bright with rush of light

But sparkling dully with untold plight.

She moves quietly away, away

from metal grilles and chilly panes.

Back, to her black-and-white monotony.

The black-and-white of papers and ink.

Sentenced and cuffed -

Behind the invisible bars of society.

People always say, education is key. It's key because it sets us free - from poverty, from discrimination, from the most hated evil of Ignorance. Because Ignorance is stagnation, regressiveness and deterioration. Because Ignorance challenges Man's march of progress.

But, education is also a cage. It forces conformity and conventions, and sometimes even goes against the natural instincts of Man. It leaves no time for an interaction with flowers, condemns the idyllic musings of life, and represses the bloom of 'useless' artistic natures. Incidentally, the title of this poem is "Education" or "The Cage of Education" if I want to be less oblique.

~ st*rcr*ss*d ~