Just A Puppet Poem by Sumaya Aijaz

On a stage, I was placed.
I stood there, only gazing,
my eyes wandering through the scene;
everything felt strangely serene.

Roles changed every now and then -
a child, a teenager, an adult.
Yet sometimes I longed
to prick the spindle
and live Sleeping Beauty's dream.

Never could I do it,
not even in play.
Yet the script never loosened it's grip,
and every dream returned to its cue.

Then I realized -
I was merely a puppet in play,
a perfect one,
dancing to strings I couldn't see,
while convincing itself it had hands.