Fortitude.... Poem by Somnath Roy

I've died in a thousand dreams
I've strolled on a million lands,
I've committed innumerable minute errors-
That have pulled my life into a quick sand.
Teachers punished me for various wrong doings,
Friends treated with disrespect for the unspeakables;
Parents have hung their heads in shame
Trying to cover up my actions, terming them with different labels.
Elders have been outraged by the shocking arrogance
Girls have fled from the insolent behavior,
God has also shunned this eccentric soul-
Leaving me to be my 'own life's seer'!
Obstacles have deterred me from achieving salvation
Society has kept me in an unremitting exile,
Failures have shattered tiny bubbles of hopes,
Degrading it to a baffling journey of countless miles!
There isn't a tragedy that has eluded me,
There isn't a thunderstorm that hasn't passed by my door,
I've been 'long dead' in the books of the cowards,
No, I'm alive, standing unscathed, asking for 'more'!