I penned this poem

It was after my third failed prelims that I penned this poem. It would be a full year before UPSC score card would show that I missed prelims qualification by 0.67 marks. I had no reason to hope, no reason to believe the next attempt would be any different from the last. Perhaps this is survivors bias that allows me to romanticise it, nonetheless I’m sharing this hoping someone else missing out in margins finds the courage to dream, one last time

I.

In ink I inscribe a lament

Of days past and present

For times lost in the current

And paths forged in discontent

In solitude the nights spent

Failure clung like it was meant

A reversion in life to resent

A trial by fire? It wasn’t

Dying flames? They aren’t

Not the fated end, it isn’t

The heart pounds with intent

The spirit refuses to relent

The embers within, they foment

Bear witness to this ascent.