Title: A Bitter Pill To Swallow Poem by ashok jadhav

(The speaker stands in a dimly lit room, surrounded by echoes of the past. Their voice wavers between anger, sorrow, and reluctant acceptance.)
How cruel is the world, that it hands you the very truth you never wished to see?
A truth so raw, so unyielding, that it tastes of ash and iron on the tongue.
They say life teaches us lessons, but they never warn you how bitter some lessons can be.
And this… this—this is a bitter pill to swallow.
I thought I knew the path I was on. I believed in the plans I had carved into the bedrock of my soul.
I believed in people, in promises, in loyalty, in dreams.
I held hope as if it were a shield, and yet—
in one cruel instant, the shield shattered, and all that was left was the sharp sting of reality.
How strange, how cruel…
To realize that the ones you trusted, the hands you held, the hearts you believed in…
were never truly yours to hold.
Betrayal wears no mask. It hides in plain sight, quiet, patient, waiting until your heart is open enough to hurt.
And when it strikes—oh, it strikes—not with fire, not with thunder, but with that slow, insidious truth.
The kind that seeps into your bones, that makes your very soul ache with a knowledge you cannot unlearn.
I try to spit it out, I try to reject it, I try to pretend it's medicine for someone else…
But the bitterness remains.
It coats my tongue, lingers in my throat, and I choke on it every time I try to move forward.
I had no choice but to swallow.
And yet… swallowing does not make it easier.
It does not erase the loss, the disillusionment, the silent tears shed in the dark when no one watches.
But perhaps that is life, is it not?
A relentless teacher, serving us bitter truths dressed as lessons, hoping—hoping—that one day we will digest them.
And in swallowing, we are forced to change. To grow.
To realize that strength is not in avoiding the bitter,
but in enduring it.
In acknowledging that some pills, no matter how foul, must be swallowed for the sake of clarity, for the sake of understanding, for the sake of… survival.
So yes… I swallow.
I swallow the hurt.
I swallow the betrayal.
I swallow the emptiness that comes with truth.
And in this bitter pill, in this unyielding reality, perhaps…
I find a seed.
A seed of resolve, a seed of wisdom, a seed that reminds me: life may be cruel, but I am still here.
I endure.
I rise.
I live.
(Pauses, voice softening, almost a whisper.)
A bitter pill to swallow…
Yes. But swallow it I must.
And someday, perhaps, I will taste the sweetness it hides.