A Fixed Poetic Self
In this complex box of world,
compact box of world,
where all are jumbled – fumbled,
where the mightier reign their voice,
others adore their choice,
how? how can I guide you to nail
a steadfast identity,
a fixed poetic self?
I dreamed,
as a young poet, bearded like a pard.
I stood at an imagined crossroad …
read name posts, hanging higher:
Satire - Beauty - Tragedy
not knowing on which one to go,
but I wanted to make a choice:
the right choice, only one choice.
“Satire” – I knew can lead me to be
A satirist, a wordsmith very rude,
We met in Thesmophoriazusae
Or in Shadwell’s aching bruise.
A satirist comes with a plan to hurt,
With an utterly smelly line of dirt,
A truly an innocent, honest heart
And to rot his own heart and art.
“Beauty” – a greener, flowery path,
with a dreamy, fairy castle in its end
I knew I can lead me to be
a beautician.
I felt I can cover a spoiled city of stench
with a magical carpet with soft fur,
and being at a distant, adore its glory,
a dreamy, fairy, flurry castle.
Tossed I my head, “I’m not for that”.
The pothole road in mid I knew
would lead me to be a tragedian,
and walk amidst the public,
tossing….
a bomb,
or with a tripod camera,
and wait till the enemy comes.
Challenging and difficult it might be,
yet I thought a tragedian I should be,
a social critic, a fighter against injustice.
That’s history. That was my dream.
- a living, breathing daydream -
I believe now
a poet
has no bounds, no limits, no constraints,
no fixed identities.
In this compact
box of world, I want to be slippery.
Slippery I will be as a fish, and will slip ……
and … shift through identities,
shuttle between poetic selves,
to live, just to survive, avoiding briers,
for my wounds still bleed … still ache.
* A 1st Place* in the following contest (judged on Dec. 30, 2020)
Dec. 17, 2020
Your Advice To The Youth Poetry Contest
Contest sponsor: Edward Ibeh
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