Just Another Man

By Deemanth Kumar

The young lad lay bare,
Without a single tuft of hair.
He gurgled in melody,
His mind adrift deep in fantasy.
His skin bathed in the tender light,
Surrounded by strangers deciding his might.
His life lay ahead, further than a mile,
Yet we forget to notice his smile.
Soon, twelve years had blinked past—
He had grown all his teeth at last.
The child in him was ignored;
With responsibilities, he was floored.
His tears were banished,
His dreams were punished.
He yearned for help in the darkness,
Yet we branded it as weakness.
He fought through reality,
Silently suffering its brutality.
He buried his ambition,
Yet we forgot to offer him recognition.
Burdened by foreign dreams,
His wistful heart screams.
He smiles through the pain,
Laughs through the rain.
All his life shattered,
He now rests in his coffin—battered.
Yet, we say he was just another man.