Life is no fairytale of happily ever afters
And roots…
Roots just hold you down
So you don’t leap off to the unknown.
There is no bliss in ignorance,
Just disgrantlements
Where we step on each others toes
Then slowly assemble pecking orders
And compete against the next person
When we should be working together
For betterment of ourselves.
There is a whole world out there!
And it waits,
Arms outstretched in a ready embrace
For the first
Soul that leaps off to the horizon.
But we have developed roots,
And accumulated too much clutter
Then clipped off our wings in infancy
Before we even knew how to fly.
To us, the outside world is a mirage
Wishful thinking for
What we want but can never have.
So we emulate it instead
And call it a simple term, “to dream.”
I might not be able to buy that sleek Mercedes,
But I’d paint up my battered corolla
and fit pre-owned
mag rims
On second hand tyres.
Its not as safe,
But it works!
See? Sleek and shiny.
Its never the same though
Because none of it is ever real.
But what’s real is a
Reality much harsher
Than the fantasy we emulate.
My brother brags with friends about bitches and hoes.
The same mouth he swears with, he kisses momma with affection.
And I know that nigga is pretentious.
Because I see him sweat everyday and still evades his landlord on payday.
Momma ain’t raised no pimp,
She’d give a kidney to see him walk on proper pants
That don’t sag below his knees.
My baby daddy said he’d call tonight,
Third time in a row now he didn’t
When he said he would.
He makes promises that man
Half of which he always fails to deliver.
But I know its hard at work
And he says stuff keep piling up,
I just pray I never catch that jezebel
He strings me along with
Because then he’d have a valid reason
To pay maintenance while I am behind bars.
Its platonic, he says
But somewhere between his tides of aggression
And calm aftermaths
I lose all reason to
Trust him
He submerges me and I drown
Losing breath as his currents sweep me under
Then just as swiftly washes me off to the shore.
Yet I cling to him
As if he were my life jacket
but I know perfectly well
His heavy anchors draw me under.
Someday I may have to cut loose
But I dread the day I swim on the deep end
With no life jacket.
Still, there will come a time
Where there will be need to shed off all entanglements
Sprout new wings and practice my leaps
we’ll disassemble all pecking orders and
Come to realise that our strength lies
Where we are for,
And not against each other.
the roots that ground us
Have no need to imprison us.
And in hindsight
We reminiscence that
There is as much world here as there is out there for
Our wealth was never monetary
And we are worth much more than silver coins
Or currency notes.
How real are you?
Emotions And Poetry 