Life often beckons me to reach out
In so many subtle ways
To go beyond the mundane, ordinary
To embrace the unknown

I falter, stutter, in life’s greying autumn
For years of routine drudgery
Has gnawed me out hollow
Leaving only a bare skeleton

Can I again become what I once was
Rising like the Phoenix
From my own grave of routineness
To brave the headwinds of uncertainty

Driven to the impregnable wall
I can perhaps reignite the lost spirit
Which once signified my gait
And laced my tongue

Discarding the cobwebs of diffidence
To discover myself anew
Meaningful, significant, unhesitant
Raring to invest in life

How strange is it then
That we pray only for tailwinds
When the catalyst for evolution
Lies hidden in the sting of headwinds

Subir Chakraborty / 22nd Dec 2018