Poetry

The Dilemma

Three wanderers came to the mystic,
seeking divine knowledge and the reasons of this world.
The mystic, old and frail, asked them:
"What is the most perplexing thing in this world?"
The First Wanderer — proud and vain "It is logic, my master,
the concepts of algebra and trigonometry
and the hidden forces of physics,
they baffle the mind and confuse the brain."
The Second Wanderer — quiet and meek "Facts and figures, one accepts as they come,
but the riddles of truth and justice,
the fragile line between life and death —
and how does one stand firm
when even the question of his existence
is uncertain and vague."
The Third Wanderer — placid and calm "It is me, revered master,
for I do not understand myself.
How I am realist by dawn, romantic by dusk.
How I bow to him one day
and wander in doubt the next about his existence.
My choices, my fears, my longings —
all that I cannot understand.
With time the questions seem to grow
but the answers are left blank."
The mystic smiled and said:
"He who knows his own soul
has already touched the divine."
S
About the Author Saanvi Mishra The Mother's International School · New Delhi, India

Saanvi Mishra is a student at The Mother's International School in New Delhi. Her flash fiction "The Perfect Wife" was published in Aporia Issue 3. "The Dilemma" is her second published work with Aporia.

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