As I walked through the gates
I felt something quite new;
Both awkward and strange,
I was clueless what I was meant to do
Maybe the tingling in my body
And the butterflies in my stomach
Were signaling the waves of change
The place where I had arrived
The place for which I had strived
Lay before me, unknown,
But waiting to be explored
The posters came and went
But what lingered was the fear
The doubt, the possibility of judgment
Was forever here
I’m not good enough, it’s too tough…
What will people think?
These thoughts overpowered my will
And became too powerful to sink
Hence, I stayed within the confines of my door
Not wanting to leave my abode of comfort anymore
Days turned into weeks
Weeks into months
But the desire to explore remained shrouded
In the Veil of Fear
Opportunities were always so near
But both my vision, and my thoughts, clouded
Finally, the day came
When I decided to end
My self-imposed exile.
I realized that my choice
Could cause no more harm than good
I parted with my old domain, prepared to face
The once feared unknown
And found myself at the registration desk,
Waiting to register my name.
I submitted this poem in the StoryMirror “Kalam aur Khayal” poetry competition in October 2019. StoryMirror released an e-Book compilation of the top 40 poems in the competition, called the “Kalam aur Khayal: English”, which included my poem, “The Veil of Fear”.
Sumant’s StoryMirror Profile: https://storymirror.com/profile/jeiq8y3e/user/poems
This poem was also featured in the October 2019 Convocation Edition of Renesa’s official yearbook – “As We Are”.
