Photo by Suzy Hazelwood on Pexels.com
Relinquish
your proud ways
it behoves no one
to hang tall on faded principle
when last we considered ourselves
it was before life swallowed us whole
too busy for contemplation
we walked off cliffs and wondered
why our broken legs didn’t work
you are not a puppet
but you have grown docile in your strings
when splintered people stuff their suffering
in nameless boxes and march to the kink
we don’t ask why
are we here, what should we do? why do we feel
as we are feeling, what ache inside us?
how do we find, authenticity?
when everything surrounding us
propels toward docile determination
we forget we were once
children of temptation and sticky fingers
unable to resist
opening jam jars, letting flies
coat themselves in satiate bliss
touching with reddened fingers
clean walls in pleasure
where did our curiosity
our hunger
go?
did we really become
stalagmites on sugar
and forget to
make forts in trees
and dams in streams
to catch the next shoal
of silver fish?
hijacked amygdala 