A Prayer For Wishes Unfulfilled

It’s good to be a human, Partha, preferably, a man.
You know that, being a prince, and being loved, and being safe
In the knowledge that you have this life, and this one life alone.
It’s good to be a god too, Madhusudhan, you know that,
You remember nothing since you forget nothing, you
Do not live since you do not die, and the demands of flesh
Cannot distract you. You were here before, and will forever be.

Consider me, then, in this body of flesh and bone I do not recognise.
And this mind, and those memories, which this body cannot
Comprehend. You say, I’m a warrior, but I’m not a man. You
Say I’m my father’s son, but I remember another father, in another lifetime,
Who called me a daughter. You say, he’s just an old man, the Pitamaha,
But I see the young, proud archer, uncouth, and heartless, who’d
Listen to none but his own voice. I blink, and I’m someone else.

(A work in progress...)