Wake Up | A Poem by Vishal Thakur

For a time, I looked into the hearts of ghosts
I am remembering one of them
I held his hand as he was dying
He cried out for the things he loved
He faced the end of his life
By asking for forgiveness
I can't make sense of it either,
Except when I held his hand
It was their hands too
that I was holding.
Their pain was the same pain
Their blood was the same blood.
Our grief is the grief of hundreds
I speak to those who are left behind
The failures, the hopeless people
All of us surrounded by the ghosts
Now we need to learn
How to live with them.
You must start at the beginning
Get up, get dressed and eat
Spring is out there waiting
Don't fight your mind and let happiness go
You think it's a right and honorable thing
But all you do is stand there,
I am asking you,
Is it?