Today is my birthday;
I hadn’t set any alarm to remind me.
Yet, a bone-chilling knuckle from nowhere
shook me up, holding a mirror to my face!
The faintest wrinkle on my forehead winked,
“You’ve grown wiser by a notch”!
I've never kept count of birthdays gone by
nor did I celebrate any for as long as I recall.
A birthday is just another day, routine to the core!
All these years I’ve lived in mortifying fear
of falling short of the expectations of bosses,
peers, friends and onlookers.
I chose to bend backwards, kneel,
crawl, obsessively eager to please all,
taking care not to ruffle any feathers.
In my willingness to compromise
on firmness, grit and consistency,
all for being in the good books of others,
did I live my life the way I would have loved to,
fearless, independent and uncompromising?
On this birthday, brooding over my hits and misses,
let me wow to caress with undiluted love
my ego, my self to make up for the neglect
and trampling it endured all these years
while I squirmed to please all and sundry.
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