Game of Choices

It’s a game of choices
Play first

and know the rules
In the end.

Choose
Either.

The stifling haven of relations
The bracing awe of solitude

The lively clamour of man’s world
The deadly silence within days and nights

The hideous truth of one’s own self
The pretty lies of others

The trance of love-hearts deceiving minds
The sanity of conventions- where only minds reign

Death in the world of bodies
Life in the world of souls

Choose yourself
take all the peans and raps

Let others choose
get a few names to blame

And
When the game ends, tiring you to death
and you want to know if you’ve won or lost
Then you know
There’s no rule for this game.
And that
Careful choosers don’t always win.

Published: Samyukta Women's Magazine - Vol 3.1. 2002 http://www.samyukta.info/archives/vol_3_1/poem/