Young Dreamers

And they dream in the rain.  

Under the shedders of open windows  

Heads hung over panes  

Fingers out stretched, they dream.  

He dreams of noise  

Of car horns and bikers,  

He dreams of the city  

and a life he yearns to live.  

She dreams of rivers  

Plane rides and trains,  

Roads leading nowhere  

and places she can never go.  

They dream of sleep  

On the nth night of labour,  

Of blackness in soft pillows  

and care they never received.  

And some dream of nothing,  

because dreaming feels dangerous  

For their eyes don’t shut to sweetness, 

but to blood and guns and violence.  

They don’t hang their heads past shutters, 

lest they bathe in red.  

They don’t dream because it’s foreign  

and they get busy dodging death.  

They learn and remember and ponder and cherish, 

But they don’t get to dream.

By Aira Shetty, for the Trans Solidarity Fundraiser

• ASHOKA UNIVERSITY
• Trans Solidarity Fundraiser