You, the Miracle

By Aarti Kalamangalam, 16

The world is a tired, worried woman. Lifetimes are stones in her pockets, history a black garb draped upon her figure. With each tear, she inks the ground a little darker, and with each scream, she forms a new chasm. Beleaguered, she trudges on, her shoes thick with soil.

But you—you are different. You are the single speckle on an otherwise pure eggshell. You are the last pearl on a broken necklace. You are the tide soaking new sand, the dog-eared page in a well-loved book. You are the soft sugar frosting mountains in the winter. You are the cool blue of stained-glass mosaics. You are the afterbirth of a cold world and the survivor of an eternity of torrential rain.

I beg of you, don’t let the world take that away. Don’t let her replace your unencumbered smile with one that cracks and peels. Don’t let her drown you in watery sorrows. Walk with the sun kissing your arms, the breeze soothing each strand of your hair. Live like you’ve lived before, and know how miraculous it is.

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I wrote this after I thought of the phrase “don’t let the world change your smile.” Essentially, this piece is just an extrapolation of that phrase. It’s about feeling hopeless in a dark world, and the realization that you aren’t the awful things that surround you.

Instagram: @aartikalamangalam