I want you to be sensitive

 When I have a child, 

I want her to be sensitive

To beauty, you had said

And I was aghast

Because it never occured to me

To wish that for my child

And isn't that the antithesis of

Whatever we are working towards?

A just and equal society?

I want my child 

To ignore beauty

To make friends

Without looking at people's face

And yet when I thought about it

I realised

I just meant

Beauty in people

I want my child

To be open and compassionate

To everyone

But at the same time, 

Yes, be sensitive to beauty

In nature

In places, in living beings

In sounds, in music, 

In art, in designs

Maybe I would not have 

Put it in those words

Maybe it was not as important 

To me as it seems to you

And yet, yes, I would want my child

To appreciate all these things

To live a full and rich life

By appreciating not just 

Such beauty

But also knowledge, history, 

Stories, creation, compassion

Yes, compassion

For a long time I had 

Deliberated on what you said

Wondering whether that is what

I want for my child

Or the opposite of it

Only to realise that

it is not necessarily what I think about

When I think of what I wish you to be

Instead, I have other priorities

I want you to be

Compassionate

Instead of privileged slob

Entitled brat

I want you to be sensitive

To pain

I want you to be sensitive 

To everyone's individual stories

and situations

I want you to not live 

In your own bubble

So that you can do

What you are able to do

For the people around you

I don't expect you to save the world

No one can do that

But I wish you become

The kind of person

Who wants to try

And after that, 

Yes, I want you to be sensitive

To beauty and 

art and music and poetry

So that you can live

A rich and full life

For happiness, my dear

Is not for the compassionate