Inheritance of luck

I train myself not to meet their eyes—

those begging at corners,

those dragging rickshaws swollen with bodies,

those bartered like cattle,

sold into brothels where flesh has a price.

I look at everything else—

billboards, dust and the indifferent sky—

as if distraction could bury the question,

"what chance kept me from their place?"

Was it mercy, or accident?

Or is it only ego,

whispering that I am safe—

while blindness lets me walk unbroken

through their hunger?

Nubisha Rabya Topote, a class 10 student at Viqarunnisa Noon School and College, is a budding poet who finds inspiration in every opportunity to write. Find more of her work @nubishawrites.