The Road Beyond Shadows

Royal Club for Literature and Peace 

The Road Beyond Shadows

Sanjay Singh

The Road Beyond Shadows

In this maze of tangled bonds,

where smiles hide knives,

and the ladder to success

is built from the backs of the unsuspecting,

you find yourself alone—

a lone traveller

in the marketplace of masks.

The road stretches—

a silver ribbon unrolling into the horizon,

its dust whispering of countless footprints

that bled before yours.

Pain is the toll

every soul has paid,

and now it waits,

palms open, for you too.

If no hand reaches for yours,

grow roots from your own feet,

stand tall like the lone banyan

that shades itself.

But tread with the care

of a moon crossing a broken sky,

for the earth remembers

every scar you press into it.

Let the soil be your bed,

let the night wrap you

in its velvet shroud of stars.

The game of life—

you are still mid-play,

and the finish line

is hidden in a thousand unseen miles

that wait

for your unbroken stride.

Sanjay Singh

documentation: Waffaa Badarneh