English) Perhaps

MAMTA SACHAN KUMAR

Due to COVID-19, we international students are unable to enter Australia. For fear of return being impossible, students in Australia are unable to leave. My story reads in kind and the following poem, translated loosely from the original text in Hindi as ‘Perhaps’, expresses my feelings of late. Perhaps, this difficult time will soon come to pass and perhaps we learn something through this life lesson.

-Stranded in Singapore, Mamta

Perhaps if I’d been there, why then I wouldn’t be here. Oh, to be lost in the embrace of the skies! Liberation, on a home-departing flight. Breaths gathered into bags, ready at the door, Desire isn’t freed by dreams wrapped in mere thought.

It took ten years to arrive at the start, To taste the height of mountains, And glance at the peak, All on my own, from fear draw courage, To finally stand, on my own two feet. Such it was when I had climbed, That truth appeared instantly: It was but me who blinded my view, And only me from whom support was due.

Why then, has life come to such a standstill, When my luck had finally turned, That sweet taste of the summit Bitter now, as tears that burn.

I am but here, so how could I be there, Protected no less than I could have been there. My patience tried, my mind unsettled, Perhaps to lie waiting, is to be charged with mettle.