The Outsider

By Ishan Banerjee
Siliguri, India

She is the one you see

Staring back at you,

A crowd mills around, all

Faces engrossed in their own being.

She is a part of them,

There, but just on the fringes ---

The one everyone accepts but

Still, happily, cannot yet absorb;

Not quite one of them,

Yet filling the photo frame;

She is detached, and lonely inside,

Secret longings and hidden passions

Make her body of torment.

She wants to express it all but

Finds a mute and silent outlet,

Her lips.

And the crowd washes away,

Like the rustlings of leaves, dead

On the class room floor,

And she still sits there.

Smiling back at you.