#poember ~ 30 day poetry challenge ~ day 11 ~ prompt: someone you see
i watch as they move around the room, eyes fidget like hands looking for keys. scanning back and forth, almost like a plea. a plea? to be invisible? to disappear? to be seen?
i sit back in my chair, running my fingers through my hair
the faint buzz of the music, lulls me into a trance
i watch from across the room as his calculated movements send my brain into a dance
with every move i have to inhale, for not much of my breath remains
he inhales and sucks all the air out of the room
and when he exhales the room is lighter, less filled with gloom
i wonder what his lungs are made of, what magic intertwines within his alveoli
developing x-ray vision i stare into his chest
wondering what the insides look like, what it would feel like below my head
he slides his fingers across the pages of his book, then rhythmically up to his hair
runs them through, and just keeps them there
i’m his fingers now
and i dance between his thick curls, long and short, coils of sorts
inhaling the scent, on my descent down his forehead i slide down the bridge of nose and cozy into the space between his lips and the very tip
the floor beneath me rumbles as he speaks, lips move up and down, across his lips my fingers sweep
i dont think he can feel me
but i can feel him
someone bumps my chair and im transported out of the rumbling womb, back across the room
“go in the fridge and grab something to eat sweetie”
“which fridge has the snacks?”
“the third one baby”
*screen pans to working class household”
“mommy im hungry”
“ask your brother for some of his food, i have to go to work and theres some cereal in the pantry”
*screen pans to household below poverty line*
“mommy im hungry”
“i know baby i know, tomorrow morning you’ll be able to eat a good breakfast at school”
house A has 50 shoes per person
house B has 10 shoes per person
house C doesn’t have a house or shoes
it’s said that something like three men own the same amount of money, of wealth
as the bottom 50% of the american population
thats 3 people
have as much money combined
as 50% of an entire population
we’ll keep this simple and not dive in to the further division of this money in terms of race
although im sure you can all guess how that will go
now long story short
the gap between the rich and the poor grew wider and wider as the rich gained more and more
the clouds hang above my head
i can hear the low rumble of the planes in my ears
echo the rumbles of so many stomachs around me
a thought which to my eyes, brings tears
the inequality we see today is a mirror of what our ancestors saw in yesterdays
however thats not to say that its okay
that we should just accept it as something that has always been
because when you look with eyes of truth
you can see through this sin
we must allow ourselves to see what is for what it is
so we can begin to do the work of fixing how it exists
now this is not to demonize those who have worked hard for their money
surely they deserve to live lavish, and laugh when its not funny
however
when they kick back their feet and relax
somewhere in some part of the world there’s a starving person wandering through the traintracks
families split bread and never miss a day at school so they can be fed
there’s just something wrong when we get paid billions for writing a song
then hoard all that cash, snort it basically throw it in the trash
there should be some sort of ethic limit no?
so we can prevent the sizes to which these gaps grow?
teachers barely scrape the surface but shape the world
through shaping the development of every boy and girl
people upset about the gradual raise of minimum wage
be careful of who you defend and who you blame
do you really think someone can survive off of 7.25
in america?!?!
its okay to lend your brother a helping hand
its okay to let love take a stand
dont forget that the common enemy is the man not your fellow human trying to make ends meet with a family of four and nothing to eat
around the world americans are known as wasteful, distasteful
we consume and consume like there’s no end to to the room, like there is no impending doom
the wealth gap is a product of inequality
income inequality, racial inequality, opportunity inequality, educational inequality
how can we re-distribute the wealth?
re-program your mind
remove the indoctrination
re-distribute the education
each one teach one, together lets rebuild our nation
to change the whole we must change the half to change the half we must change each piece
so lets hold ourselves accountable, at least
next time you go to mcdonalds and buy a number three, add a extra large fry and give it to the homeless dude outside make sure you look em in the eye and smile at em real big let em know your on his side
we all just want to know we’re not alone, that we belong that this place is our home
next time you go to the dollar store buy a pack of snacks, deodorant and socks galore keep them in your car and instead of mean mugging the “beggar” at the light roll down your window and give him a bite, if we all do this i promise it’ll go real far
yes its gonna be hard to shift the state of our world
but we must start now, together
rememeber that on earth there are billions of worlds, one within each of us and if we re-shape our world we can re-shape the world
history is now and we write the book
take back your pen and around you, take a look
every action in the ocean of life, ripples into eternity
reading helps me find my voice. just as “ello poppet” helps me speak a british accent. and “pulling a string” on my body helps me to create a character in improv. for every creation there is a model. if this is true then who created the first model? did the originators of all creations model their creations after anything other than the visions in their heads?
reading helps me find my voice. picks me up and places me into a world where there are only words, there is only literature. all else is white noise to the soundtrack of the writer. i read and words flow to me like i am the shore and the words are the ocean. endlessly crashing into me, seemingly retreating but always coming back to caress my feet. words are truly magical, they create nations and burn them down. they light the fires of love and give meaning to the days and nights. what would the world be without words? what would we use to express, how would we communicate? what other universal form of interaction would we create? would all be music? art? and without a universal model, would there be endless originality? endless creation? or is all creativity recycled at some point in time?
it seems an absolute truth to me that without eachother we can not create. however it also seems to me a truth that with eachother we can not create. something of a yin and yang this thought. that in order to create there must be a certain cyclical element specific to the art of creation and a certain linear element specific to the creator.
my mind spins with ideas. i am rich in ideas yet so so poor in creation. ideas are only ideas if they are not put to action. i could drown in a sea of ideas before i ever build a raft. however when i allow myself to look around the sea, maybe dive below and explore the carcasses of the past. i am overcome with ideas, with inspiration. i could build a million rafts from simply seeing that one raft was built one million years ago. there is something comforting in the knowledge that one of the mystery humans of the past has had similar ideas and of them created a raft with which to float amongst them.
all this to say, when we save ourselves, we save others. when we allow ourselves to create, to be; when we have the courage to create a model, a blueprint of a raft in which to float the sea of life. we create a portal into the minds of others, which they can tap into for centuries to come.
I keep “The Measure of a Man” by Dr. Martin Luther King JR. on my desk. I just picked it up and opened to a page that revealed to me the true poetic nature of Dr. King.
He writes:
“Something should remind us once more that the great things in the universe are things that we never see. You walk out at night and look up at the beautiful stars as they bedeck the heavens like swinging lanterns of eternity, and you think you can see all. Oh, no. You can never see the law of gravitation that holds them there. You walk around this vast campus and you probably have a great esthetic experience as I have had walking about and looking at the beautiful buildings, and you think you see all. Oh, no. You can never see the mind of the architect who drew the blueprint. You can never see the love and the faith and the hope of the individuals who made it so. You look at me and you think you see Martin Luther King. You don’t see Martin Luther King; you see my body, but, you must understand, my body can’t think, my body can’t reason. You don’t see the me that makes me me. You can never see my personality. In a real sense everything we see a shadow cast by that which we do not see.”
Dr. Martin Luther King JR.
Dr. King was a man of a deep rooted faith. A strong argument could be created that he believed in the unseen more than anyone else of his time. For it was because of his blind faith and infinite vision that he was able to lead us to the mountaintop. He had seen the promised land, whether it be in a vision or in his dreams. He had seen something which no one else had seen, and he believed in it wholeheartedly. He fought for this vision so graciously and so righteously that he convinced an entire nation of people to walk behind him. Many of which, including me, still do; years after his passing.
I share this today to redirect us to the connectivity and oneness of all things. The computer i’m typing on originated in the mind of a fellow human. But i will never see the courage with which he built it, the determination he had when creating it. All i see is the product of this. I see the final vision. The same is true for traffic lights, pens, television, art, music, etc. The same is true for all that we see in this current moment. All that we see is made possible due to all we can not and will never see.
It is very important to pay attention to every moment. For we do not know which moments are the invisible ones that will give birth to the visions of eternity, we do not know which thoughts, moments, ideas are the mothers of the future. We must nurture ourselves and love ourselves. Follow our deepest passions with the purest form of love and diligence fathomable. We are blind at the feet of feeling, of experience. So why then is it so difficult for us to trust, to believe in the things we can not see. We do this all the time subconsciously. We accept so many shadows of the invisible as true, as facts. So what is it that blocks us from extending this same trust to our conscious daily life?
All has come from another, an invisible source. Even we. So, I pose these follow-up questions for reflection: If we can see the product of the source, isn’t that testament that the source exists? For without a source, there is no existence?
For all creations there must be a creator.
thank u for reading my beloved humans on the other end of the internet void. i love u.
Lady Soi. 