Never ask why.
Never give up.
Never stop.
Smiling laughing pleasing teasing.
Never cry.
Listen to the birds
and the wind.
Light candles
to bring truth in.
Never win.
Read nothing
from silence.
Imagine no one
from darkness.
Never spin tales.
Never weave dreams.
Still you must hope.
Always believe.
Try everything.
Now forget
and start again.
~ Shaista, 2010
December 5 is Day of the Ninja, apparently. This picture of me on the PSSU Ward, D5, Chair 9, is the very first and only picture in existence of me in hospital. I am not sure why I asked the nurse to take it. I was my warrior poet self. I was thinking of you all as I smiled. Thinking of you, thanking you, for two years of strength, encouragement, advice, friendship, poetry, travel photographs, compliments and prayers. The picture is a little fuzzy, a little out of focus, and the nurse, Annamma, apologised for that. But I like it fuzzy, unfocussed, surreal. Ninja, or shinobi, means to steal away, and thus, by extension, to forbear. Look for me in that chair. I am not there :)
