Ru...Ru...Ruckus

A Poem by SJ

This was the result of a lot of bottled up emotions and anxiety. Words are my life-vest that keep me from drowning too far into perceptions, reflections, insights and emotions.

When the weight of the world
Doesn’t hold back
And crushes you,
And what little remains,
Of the spirit that is you.
When all doors seem to close,
Every few steps you get closer.
When a new chapter arises,
Every time you feel,
Your story has been told.
Every time you pick yourself,
You get pushed back down,
Harder, faster and farther.
When all that lives in your heart,
Are the frigid overtones
Of despair, loneliness,
Anxiety and fear,
And that brief shadow of hope,
That is a breath away from being
extinguished.
When you are just one blow away,
From being a follower like
everyone else.
Because, trying to be different,
And being a leader,
Only led you down
A path of turmoil and toil.
Where most days,
All that simmered within,
Was a heady concoction of anger,
And pure rage,
At the obstacles that seemed,
Inevitable and unavoidable,
Every step of the way.
Where nobody heard the pain
in your screams,
The anguish in your teary streams.
Where every setback,
Was blamed on your lack of dedication.
Where each morning,
Looking in the mirror,
You saw a piece of you falling away,
And the rest of you falling apart.
Where pretending to a prescribed
standard,
Became the new normal.
Where the words you spoke,
Seemed to diminish,
Yet remained unseen and unknown.
Where your silence,
Was taken as a sign of adherence.
To the standard of ignorance and indifference,
That we all prefer to embrace faster,
Than a challenge
That requires our participation.
Where the pioneer, you once were
And you still know somewhere in the
back of your mind,
That you are,
Is shunned and abandoned,
Mocked and ridiculed,
For even dreaming to be different,
Faster than the follower,
Who sets their feet in footprints
left behind,
One after another.
Walking in another's path,
Travelling the same journey,
Under a different name.
Killing all sense of adventure and
curiosity,
That made us thrive and strive,
And gave us our drive.
Where there is nothing to forgive,
And everything to forget.
Where you and I,
Aren’t people anymore,
But mere means to an end.
Where you’re evaluated,
Not by integrity,
But by the abilities,
To deceive, falsify and repeat
Inexplicable lies,
And bury unspoken truths.
Where being delusional,
Is the new normal;
And having preset programmed
responses,
Considered traits of being normal.
Where visionaries aren’t lauded,
Where hooligans are applauded.
Where children are told to be original
and creative.
But then are shown that originality and
imagination,
Are nothing more than mere childhood
fantasies to be shunned.
Where dreams aren’t to be chased,
Because they’ll never feed you in coming days.
Where it’s acceptable,
To let all the pieces of you break apart,
and fall away.
Until one day,
When you look in that mirror,
And see that all the signs,
That made you who you were,
Have finally come apart and given way,
And turned you into,
Yet another voiceless and faceless resident,
Another statistic,
Gathered, sifted and noted away,
In the annals of history,
To be never looked back on ever again.
So make your mark,
Break the shackles,
Toss away those masks that hide away,
that beautiful face.
Reveal the cracks, reveal the faults,
Release the pain,
From all that you’ve lost.
Relinquish your hold,
On your dreams, on your goals.
Own your mistakes, own your losses.
Failure is your best guide,
Your ultimate teacher.
In fact,
It is the only sign, the only indicator
That tells you you’re doing something
right.
Walk your path,
Even if you’re the only one doing so.
Because sooner or later,
Being the anomaly,
Makes you the liberator and reformer,
That starts a revolution,
To strive for things,
Far beyond ordinary and mundane.