Graduation

One fine day i put on some new clothes

Climbed on a stage smiling

And received a sheet of glazed paper

Stating in the blackest and the whitest

that my childhood was over

that who I was -or aspired to be- was being replaced

By who I was ordained to be

And just like that all my dreams were replaced

With cold , calculated and careful plans

A life which was promised as an adventure

Was turned into a never-ending run on the treadmill

The universe of possibility in my head was sucked out

And supplanted with one of conformity

My freedom was rendered obsolete

And all my desires declared effete

My definition of happiness was reduced to that of acceptance

And that of acceptance to acquiescence

As if just to make it official and eternal

My teary-eyed mother pressed the silver button,

The flash went off and an image was captured

The very same I am holding now and remembering the day

When I was standing at the cusp

and without a warning was pushed over the edge and made to fall

And fall I did—through time, space and everything

Falling I still am

The surcease of this fall shall be the last thing I know

Or maybe not.