Written piece
Imperfect
Sangeeta Jasmine
India
About this piece
The poem is a reflection on society’s tendency to label differences as imperfections. It encourages acceptance of people, choices, and expressions that do not conform to established norms. It also questions why anything different is so quickly judged as imperfect.
You write illegibly,
You sing out of tune,
You dance off beat,
It's imperfect.
What strange idea?
What irrational view?
What absurd conviction?
It's imperfect.
Why eat with the left?
Why write with the left?
Why not follow the line?
It's imperfect.
You are dark or short,
Young or old,
Why look outward,
And call it imperfect?
Are you celibate?
A nomad?
Not working?
It's imperfect.
A painting, a poem,
A story, a structure,
A person, a clan,
Can't it be different?
I paint my silence,
I write my belief,
My story unfolds its way,
Unlike the masters.
Off track, off norm,
Uncommon, wayward,
You won't understand,
Imperfection is my style.