as her voice choked with emotion and controlled angst and dread rolled down my phone, found myself close to tears. a friendship that has lasted more than a few decades; remember the day I saw her outside the school office with her dad, just as I was, waiting for admission in Class VI. The journey from there on has been a long one; we've meandered, lost ourselves, lost touch, and she has lost much more in her life, but yes the yearly calls, have followed quite a regular pattern, touchwood. And I had thought she'd somehow confronted the demons and has emerged, atleast to an extent. looks like they are there to haunt her, and from what i decipher they seem to stay on, never to let go...she sounded so bleak and unsure. wanted to just hold her hand and be there; the way i used to be when we were in our pinafores and braided plaits. it was much simpler then, and she had me, to pour out all her stories; friends use to tease us, or rather her for her non-stop prattle. said she hardly talks these days! it hurts to see her this way; hurts to realise that life for some is a one big joke. hurts to think why one soul cannot cleanse another's, of misery and pain. hurts to be far away from a friend who is hurting.

Maya Angelou's

Still I Rise

You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may trod me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I’ll rise.

Does my sassiness upset you?
Why are you beset with gloom?
‘Cause I walk like I’ve got oil wells
Pumping in my living room.
Just like moons and like suns,
With the certainty of tides,
Just like hopes springing high,
Still I’ll rise.

Did you want to see me broken?
Bowed head and lowered eyes?
Shoulders falling down like teardrops.
Weakened by my soulful cries.
Does my haughtiness offend you?
Don’t you take it awful hard
‘Cause I laugh like I’ve got gold mines

Diggin’ in my own back yard.
You may shoot me with your words,
You may cut me with your eyes,
You may kill me with your hatefulness,
But still, like air, I’ll rise.

Does my sexiness upset you?
Does it come as a surprise
That I dance like I’ve got diamonds
At the meeting of my thighs?
Out of the huts of history’s shame
I rise

Up from a past that’s rooted in pain
I rise
I’m a black ocean, leaping and wide,
Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.
Leaving behind nights of terror and fear
I rise

Into a daybreak that’s wondrously clear
I rise
Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,
I am the dream and the hope of the slave.
I rise

I rise

I rise.

liked it!