How

How

How are you? How did you do? How do you feel? How is your view?

How is riddled with expectation. Dream assassination.

How much? How often? How well? How right?

WHO decides HOW you are doing?

The worth of your effort,

Renewal or ruin.

 

You want to beat them? You can’t. Armoring up is useless.

They are cultural mercenaries of mass delusion.

Manipulate by chronic confusion.

Keep up the pace. Work harder.

Don’t lose face. Be smarter.

It’s a never-ending ruse.

 

They infiltrate your mind in elementary school.

Grade your compliance. Rate your defiance.

Teach you to measure your confidence

By letters and numbers, Brilliance or

Blunders. Judge your assimilation,

Imprison imagination.

 

Who are they? Parents and teachers– unconscious repeaters,

Passing batons of self-betrayal in the relay race of ambition,

Running ever faster for the love of acquisition, timeless

Superstition that there is not, in fact, enough, to feed

Our need– for what? Therein lies the issue.

We’ve forgotten why we came.

 

If you are a child, be warned–there is unintentional harm

For every year you acquiesce, the joy becomes a little less,

The spirit will regress, and freedom forfeit its nest.

To refugee adults and the wounded child within,

This is an invitation… to stop. And begin.

Belly up to the bullies, barking orders.

 

The ones inside your head, filling you with dread,

Ask them what they’ve come for, where they

want to go, ask them what their story is and

let them know– you’re sorry– for the blame

and shame of what you couldn’t know,

of how you let the darkness grow.

 

Hate is sometimes easy. Love is hard. Letting go feels powerless.

Holding on takes charge. Angels can’t protect us because

There’s nothing in our way– other than the obstacles,

We think will keep us safe. How are you?

How do you do? How is your life?

How is your WHO?