Poetic Perspective (part 9) - Victimized

VICTIMIZED

Do we choose to be victimized while living in reality?

To be victims each day as we awaken from our beds, as we walk the streets regularly

If we know that society is built a certain way, then why do we expect anything less than what we receive?

Especially when you know how society reacts when we try to be different, when we try and break free?

When we try and dream

That’s when reality makes us victims and suppresses us relentlessly

We say the right things in conversations because we know what we are expected to say

We know how to act in society because we manage to do it each and every day

Yet inside, in our minds and in our hearts, we’re victimized by our crushing realities

We are afraid to be ourselves, even when we are with those we love 

We know even though they love us, it isn’t always unconditionally

Though they’ll smile in front of us, they judge us surreptitiously

Secretly, stealthily

It’s the truth in our realities, in our relationships, it’s what lurks beneath

The disease lives inside the human heart, the human mind

A judgmental society that finds a way to leave us feeling victimized over time

Victimized enough to know our place in the hierarchy of civil society

Victimized enough to know our position when we encounter powerful people daily

Victimized enough to know where we stand religiously and culturally

Victimized enough to know where we stand economically and politically

Victimized enough to know where we stand when it comes to gender and our sexuality

Victims –aren’t we all when we live this reality?

Victims is what society makes of you and me

A cruel fate to be born into this reality, to be able to have all five senses and use our brains actively

Yet not be able to make major changes in society, even those that affect our own minor realities

We fight, we fight, we fight -until there is nothing left

That’s when we have learned how to master reality, we await fatigued, awaiting to release our last breath

We live through others -through poems, through movies, through art, and through friends

Through our children, through our co-workers, through their joys and happiness

Through their sadness, dismay, pain, and hurt

We are victims of our bodies, of our society, of civilization, of the reality we live in today.