I Won’t Be Hassled for the Universe
Look at me,
You think
That I have spent
So many years
So many thoughts and
So many tears
To welcome uninvited views
To color my canvas
With pathetic hues?
Look at me,
You think
This spirit you face
Has come by chance
Is a kind of rock —
A product of
Mere circumstance?
Is that you see?
Is that why you
Keep pestering me
To mold myself
Like wet brown mud
To the liking of
A children’s toy
Which breaks through play
And is molded again
And broken again
And molded again
Is subject to
The whims of time
The rules of game
The hands of you
And others the same
No, no, kind one
Thank you, thank all
For the genial thoughts
For the sculpting hands
But since I am
No marble stone
I think it vain
To be handled so
And since I am
A human being
A thinking seele
I have put up
With the sands of time
And shaped them too
As they have me
I think I know
Which way to go
Your signposts have
No use for me
Don’t pull my coat
Don’t step on it
Don’t tap my back
Or wait for me
It slows me down
It wears me out
Your trivial crusades
Shall make me drown
Please let me be
Please let me be
Who I am now
Who I can be
Don’t doubt my will
I took time out
From a busy routine
To write this verse
So saturnine
To tell you once
This one thing whole
I have a life
With meaning much
I have a mind
To think it such
Some pursuits
I would rather nurse
In chase of which—
I declare thus —
I won’t be hassled
For the universe
By: Tanzeela Anis
