As I was on my way up the hills, I observed him.

The wealthy ones considers their kind as a thing of beauty,
The gamblers sees them as wager worthy,
To equestrians they are mere entertainment to collect and ride so they can call it a hobby,
While they are the source of sustenance for the uneducated, unemployed anthropoids.

Anthropoids, since they are human figures devoid of humanity.
They denotes the poor mammal 'it' as if he is a thing, a mere possession.
I wonder if any of them are able perceive him as a life?
Bearing the involuntary responsibility of a breadwinner for a family,
An unrelated family that does not belong to him.

I see him,

But oh! He's still so little to be carrying the weights of ignorant devotees who're devoid of compassion,
While the malevolent demon in the human form of a wrangler torments him.
I wonder if it was a lie that evil spirits fears God, I saw them with my four-eyes in his very home.

They drugged the little one to drag him further
As he strives and struggles and groans in pain constantly,
untill his steps became drowsier each passing minute.

They let him rest temporarily now that he finally makes it to the peak,
While they search for someone new to stake his life for money, to satisfy their greed.
Not knowing that this rest will be permanent in nature this time,
It feels like his time to reunite with the supreme one has arrived.

His heart seemed heavy, then settled, then still,
Just like the mountains that surrounded him.
The cold in the atmosphere now takes over his anatomy,
And his eyes appears to be in a state of deep meditation.

And while people are so occupied to even notice it, here I'm left with the jarring realisation of the irony that

The one who took the desperate worshippers to seek God is the only one among them all who found him.

-Sheetal Pokhriyal

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© Sheetal Pokhriyal