All Roots Are Chains (Sonnet 2424) ― Abhijit Naskar, Sonnets From The Mountaintop

Proverb goes, change takes time;
I say, time takes change,
for without change there is no time.

And it always begins with you, and
by that, I mean us – you, me, all of us.
I opened my eyes, and couldn’t find
a single proper multicultural human
in the world, so I became one –

even the best of egalitarian thinkers
still remain rooted in their geography,
for that’s the norm of their time and age,

but for myself, I find such trait
to be nothing more than a tribal vestige,
unbecoming of the time-fabric I’m weaving.

I must be free, absolutely, unequivocally free,
from all forms of chains masquerading as roots –
so I stand free, from every last inherited loyalty,
not as a better human, just an invitation.