Author: Mishka Gupta, Class X B
Second place is wonderful they say
At least you won something today.
They say it like silver is something to hold
Like it doesn’t feel heavier than gold.
Like second is something you learn to embrace
Not a loss wearing a beautiful face
They see the medal. They see the shine,
They don’t see the gold that was almost mine
They see a podium, flashes, applause,
They don’t know what it costs
Because how do you tell someone
who’s never stood there
that the distance between winning and losing
can be a single breath of air
One point
One little point, and the world stays the same.
Except now you can’t bear to hear your own name.
One point between the dream and the ache,
between the gold you wanted and the silver you take
And the worst part is, when it’s done
The crowd has left. The lights are gone.
But somewhere inside, the rally’s alive.
A thousand different ways you could’ve survived
What if I’d reached it ?
What if I’d stayed?
what if I’d made that shot ?
What if it had gone my way?
You play it at midnight. You play it at dawn.
You lose it again though the match is long gone
And no matter how many times you replay it
The score doesn’t change. The point stays away
They tell you to breathe. They tell you it’s fine
that there’s always another match
another finish line
But they don’t understand what makes it cruel
You weren’t beaten by miles. You were beaten by one
And then comes the podium
Your name fills the silence. You walk into light
The medal waits for you cold and bright.
someone says smile, someone raises a phone
And suddenly you are the loneliest person you know
So you lift up your head. You do what you’re told
You let them hang silver around your throat
The cameras keep flashing. The crowd cheers your name
And you stand there still losing the same game.
Because how do you smile
When your heart’s somewhere else?
How do you look happy, when you can’t fool yourself?
the tears find their way though you swallow them back
you hold still. You stay on mark,
And you wonder if anyone looking at you can see
The girl on the podium is not who she came to be.
maybe someday this medal will shine
Maybe I’ll hold it and call it mine
Maybe the years will soften the sting
And I’ll see what it took to stand here second, not king
But not today
Today silver is almost
It’s a thousand little endings
that nobody else can see
It’s all the hours that led to this place
And one single point I cannot replace
It’s being so close to the thing you adore
That you can still see the gold you were reaching for
So don’t tell me I’m lucky, don’t tell me I’ve won
Don’t tell me to smile, because the match is done
You can call it an achievement, you can call it success
But you weren’t inside my head,
When one point became the rest
And maybe that’s the thing nobody tells you about losing.
Sometimes the hardest part isn’t the defeat.
It’s standing there, with a medal around your neck
Applause in your ears,
And tears you can’t explain
knowing that somewhere in another version of that day
you won.
And you keep wondering
how it feels
to be her.
