Neighbours’ Remuneration

All creatures are neighbours.
Because we inhabit the same Earth,
Or the same village, or the same home.
Sometimes, I face you, and sometimes, I don’t.

Some of us (only some) are lucky to be brushed, and fed, and sent
To study the same hieroglyphics,
To read the same books, learn the same numbers.
Some of us (only some) receive smartphones as gifts when we reach adolescence,
To text and to play as we choose.

But the moment we step out of the gates of school,
Into the world,
We might have been neighbours and friends,
Now, it is everyone for themselves.
And again, some of us (only some) get our first job,
But soon we realize that the colour of the brush we were groomed with, in our childhood, matters.
The realization soon dawns that life may be unfair, and choice – preordained.
Was the brush pink or was it blue? The other colours in the spectrum silently tried to assert themselves too,
But were disquietingly ignored.