Real Me

On my fiftieth

After cutting the cake

When lights went out

I lay on my bed

The darkness struck

Showed me a thing

Hidden deep under

Delusions and conceit

Supple and soft

It sneaked through cracks

Shaking off the dust

Of decades covering it

But before it could smile

I banged it shut

Afraid of losing

All I had gained over years

And the life of feigning

For wealth and peers

So deep down somewhere

Under heaps and mounds

Forsaken again

Lies the real real me

©️ShashikantDudhgaonkar