Proclaim Yourself NOW
Where/What/When/Why/How are You?
This poem is about so many things
They/Them/Their/What/Why/When/Why/How/Who/Maybe
Proclaim Yourself NOW
–by Becky WTGH
I’ve been spending most of my time wondering about time and space
I’ve been wondering what keeps us all in this place
here, not there, not
over there, not with anyone not without
penance. Everything has a takeaway, a kick-back, a
revelation. No one wants to tell you what’s plain in your complexion.
They’re all too worried about themselves and their own reflection
I am too worried about myself, life has a sense of humor.
I see fear as a wall that I cannot overcome. I know walls are
everywhere,
that we are nothing if not walled.
All of us, walls. Everything, Everywhere, walls.
To complain is to perceive, no one wants to hear
what I perceive, so says the whisper in my ear,
unless I’ve achieved.
Try to climb the wall, they say.
Climb to achieve, climb too perceive, to reach new heights.
And when it’s all said and done, make a proclamation.
What great sensation, proclamation.
A sort of social orgasm–
the act of proclamation.
When you proclaim, you’re basically just screaming.
Screaming the ecstasy of belief, of conviction–
Screaming your ideas, screaming your opinions
Could anyone know anything, in this time-space continuum?
Are we the same, day-to-day, or are our consciousnesses
pure victims of speculation ?
Why pretend, with all these proclamations.
You proclaim what you feel, not what you know.
A passionate guess, as best you could follow
a life’s work of estimates, years worth of theory.
We are here to be experts, we are here to be toddlers.
I don’t trust your celebration, I don’t trust your revelation.
I don’t trust myself, I’ve made mistakes before
I have no idea who or what I am
or if I’ll be freed when I find me.
But please, stop telling me
who to be,
how to feel, what to eat,
how to act, and who to see!
You proclaim yourself community, but somehow in the end;
no matter how much you pretend
we are all
outside of it.