from birth to authenticity
Posted: February 28th, 2019, 11:54 am
I dove headfirst into the ocean of discontentment
not knowing the depth of the water, where
the rocks were, knowing nothing of the rip tides
there were no triangular flags of any color,
no lifeguards on duty, this impulse
did not originate in the "sanity" of my father
No, it was born in the quiet agitation of resistance
the kind that boils like magma below the surface
of containment, exasperating the rubberneckers
that love to giggle and gawk at your "inabilities"
to stay on the path to heaven,as it was laid out for you
like the clothes on your bed , to wear to St. Dominic's mass
the stones were compacted, set in trounced earth
the path illuminated in the turbulent sky of adolescence
by unchallenged traditions that bind the hands
this bizarre conciseness before your spirit was awakened
before you recognized yourself in photographs
before you ever said the word, No
So why this aversion to step inside the universal pair of shoes
one size fits all, it was always that way, this climb
to the top of the highest rock, the plunge
into the minority pool, I'm certainly
not talking about hell here
I'm merely talking about the struggle
from birth to authenticity
not knowing the depth of the water, where
the rocks were, knowing nothing of the rip tides
there were no triangular flags of any color,
no lifeguards on duty, this impulse
did not originate in the "sanity" of my father
No, it was born in the quiet agitation of resistance
the kind that boils like magma below the surface
of containment, exasperating the rubberneckers
that love to giggle and gawk at your "inabilities"
to stay on the path to heaven,as it was laid out for you
like the clothes on your bed , to wear to St. Dominic's mass
the stones were compacted, set in trounced earth
the path illuminated in the turbulent sky of adolescence
by unchallenged traditions that bind the hands
this bizarre conciseness before your spirit was awakened
before you recognized yourself in photographs
before you ever said the word, No
So why this aversion to step inside the universal pair of shoes
one size fits all, it was always that way, this climb
to the top of the highest rock, the plunge
into the minority pool, I'm certainly
not talking about hell here
I'm merely talking about the struggle
from birth to authenticity