Amor Fati?
Occasionally, one wonders, what really is fate?
Is fate truly a force, or does one decide their own?
Is it conveyed by the energy of the universe,
Or does it emerge as the fruit, from the seed one had once sown?
Has it travelled over many suns, and stars,
As a harbinger of doom for a simpleton,
As an encouragement of reward for a lord?
Is fate the cause of a farmer’s inferior blood,
That ultimately leads him astray,
Away from the riches,
To his destiny, already grey?
For, if a farmhand was able to choose his morrow,
Why then, would the poor man choose to suffer,
Through a life of injustice, a lifetime of sorrow?
To toil in the ground, each dawn, every day,
Watch his young slowly succumb, afflicted by pox,
Starving, and ill, if only he could have a say?
So, does one choose their destiny, select their stars,
Pick their fights, and their scars?
Or does their miserable fate compel them to choose,
To make themselves a new one, to fight,
For the simple reason of joy,
To find felicity in their lives, and a little bit of light.
Look at the woman, who tempts her fate,
By wearing a saree, pants, a blouse,
By choosing to work and stay out late,
When her destiny urges her to stay put,
While the man earns the bread, why does she venture out,
And not wait on him, hand and foot?
The black man feels and hears abuse,
Arouses suspicion wherever he goes,
And comes home each day with a new bruise, For, when
your fate tells you to be born and die a slave, Why try to
fight the cop, to dream of freedom and equality, When you
can give up the liberty, you so crave?
The gay man, who listens to his father,
Calling homosexuality a disease, with pain,
And tries to bare his heart, to feel inclusion,
To be free for once, in vain,
Perhaps, he should hide his soul,
Marry a woman, love his fate,
At the cost of feeling whole.
So, occasionally, one wonders,
That if one loved one’s fate, without condition,
And loved their future, without inhibition,
Imaginably, the world would be,
Trapped in the clutches of white supremacy.
By Ananta Bhushan, for the Trans Solidarity Fundraiser