Brother Bystander

A poem by Achuthan Panikath

Tue Mar 31 2026

Five years late to join her team,
I walk through clean, lush, cultured land,
To see her wage her wits and words
To kill off beasts that prowled the woods.
Speakers, artists, dancers and nerds
Envied her, for she was all in one.
A rebel whom I dared never poke;
She took the hits, and danced through pain.
In a world that hated happy hearts,
In a home that used and threw her dreams,
In a room that shut her pain away,
I dare not hear her bed's sad tunes.
Twenty years since, I see her true:
Shunned for living by her dad's rules,
Cursed for daring to believe in love,
Disowned for having faith in self.
For twenty years, I've simply stared
With tearful eyes and prideful smiles.
A helpless brother, I scream with joy
As the goddess reigns her queendom now.