KARNA

Floating on waves

that could have me drowned,

I found
unconditional love

and conditional empathy.

Abandoned for pride,

embraced with humility-

contradictions and incongruity

defined my being.

Valor I had.

Honor I got.

Price I paid,

was absolute loyalty-

misplaced.

I was told,

again and again,

that I sold my soul

in bargain

for love of decorations

that adorned my chest-

and the rest!

Taunting,
un-daunting
"discarded branches

don't find roots"

-Brutes

never failed to point!

I belonged

nowhere near the sphere

of royalty and royals-

Loyal,

though I may have been,

no one could see

me to be just me...

I had a mother

who had not bothered

with the pain of my birth-

Her mirth

in bearing her other three

was overwhelmingly

full of glee.

Born of her ear,

I personified her fear-

her shame and guilt.

She got away.

I could not.

I fought

her sons-

not because

I had a grudge,

but because

they could not merge

the divide-

legitimacy

has always been

conditional.

And, more so

when seen

through borrowed morality!

I lived

the mortality-

others

were divine.

But,

revenge

was mine.

As truth revealed-

those who erred,

sealed

their fate

with a roll of dice.

Nothing was left

to further sacrifice...

I did my karma.

They betrayed

their dharma

I, live

as the one who did

what loyalty decreed.

I died

with pride,

defending a friend.

They fought

fraught

with weight of guilt!