Puotounguno Basumatary: Figures of Thought: Collegiate Voices across Spaces

My full stop

Do I really have to start?

Can you tell me my ending before things start?

I don’t want to answer, 

Can I say no before you question?

I’m sacred to fall,

Can you pull me up before I fall?

I do not understand the story,

Can you give me the summary?

I want to run,

Can I?

The dot that ends everything I want,

The dot that decides if I can continue my story.

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Doubt

I’m having a second thought!

Can I make it?

Is all that runs around my mind?

Can I handle this?

Is all that I care about

Starting over is not an option I can choose.

There are eyes all over me,

One wrong step, I shatter so many hopes.

I can’t settle for less.

I want the best because they always gave me the best.

I have been walking on thorns but I was never bleeding.

Because they made sure I wore the best shoes.

I can’t stop running, I can’t stop trying.

If I do,

I’m making the world laugh for the left turn my parents took 

When I told them I wanted a different world.

It’s me and the doubt that will write the next page.

***

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Author's Bio:  Puotounguno Basumatary is from Kohima, Nagaland and is presently doing her bachelors in Psychology and counselling in Assam Don Bosco University. She has been into writing for the past few years and most of her writings have been inspired from her observations of the world and also her inner thoughts. Writing has been very close to her because in writing, she lives the life she wants. She finds that she is able to connect with people more through her writing and the happiness she gets when people appreciate her words and also when it brings a major change in their lives, is immense. She is determined to continue writing not for recognition but for the love of it.

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Setu, June 2021