To Be

By Manu

Want to hear a story about a Baby Elephant?

Let’s call her ‘BE’(Baby Elephant),

So there was a BE, but she wasn’t born free,

People chained her legs when she was born

People shot dead her mother,

She didn’t know the spellings to mourn.

She tried and tried more to break the chain,

But her legs were weak, and all she felt was pain.

Doubts made home where tusks were meant to rise,

And she thought shackles were her destiny and demise.

Finally, defeated and crushed, she gave up on trying and thought she could never be strong enough to break those chains, accepted her fate, sighing.

Now came the two paths in the story.

One led to sadness, and the other to strength yet to be discovered.

Finally, she did grow up, and she did become strong.

She did become fierce as she always meant to be.

The sad part was that by then, she had forgotten about trying. After years of setbacks,

even when she attained the strength to shatter countless chains,

she lost the belief and believed freedom was beyond her reach.

But the sad part ended then and there.

Then came the hopeful part,

and it had only one sentence, or not and it was simple, or not.

‘All she needs to do is muster her existing strength and make one determined attempt,

and a thousand chains will crumble into dust,

and in her strength, she only has to trust.’

By Manu