Unworthy of note

In the fifteen years since her first job, she had achieved not a thing worth of note.

With failed starts queuing up to summarise her career, her grey hair lengthened regardless of a resumé refusing to impress. Promising big breaks all shattered into nothingness.

Day by day, expending labour and expecting nothing, from home to work and back, she walked a routine so plain and black.

Despite income in a steady flow, her dreams towered over unsteady floor. Enough for a living but not so for a life.

She’d failed a thousand times before.

Always willing to try once more.

Service

So eager to serve

a soldier of meagre fear—

such a neophyte.

A dreamer she was

basketball

Alicia’s counsellor remained impassive. It wasn’t the first time a child blamed an unsupportive family. But Alicia was different. She hadn’t attacked her parents or run away. She had, instead, hurt herself.

Her parents wanted a boy who’d bring home the Olympic dream. Alicia, however, had dreamt of bringing home the Pulitzer. When her father enrolled her for basketball, puny Alicia had to become athletic. With protein and unprescribed drugs for breakfast, she was ready in months.

Every time she dunked victory, she dunked her passion down, too. Now five years later, banned for drug abuse, Alicia dreamt no longer.

Survival of the fittest

Away from the ledge

she walked in tentative steps

once drug abuser

Braving the morning

Glorious future

bubbled, then popped like a gum

as the alarm blared

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