Listen! I am being pushed over the edge, and I am not going down without fighting (collateral damage)!: A poem

I am reminiscing

For only reminiscence can defy

gravity, predicament, light, time, space

Like a childhood recreated in my backyard

that swings on a clumsy rope tied to a mango!

And I tell the child to stop oscillating

Freedom is only found within one’s self

No one else can guarantee it!

I am no angel with broken wings

And I am not the devil who dangles the swings!

I walked to the store last evening

And saw a beggar sleeping on the frozen wintry floor

I didn’t throw him a dollar

And he gave me a vacant stare in response

Somewhere between dream and nightmare

I saw him open his arms to me…indicating

that I should be tearing past these inane blocks…

tearing them down with my rage!

And if I can foreclose it all in defiance

shut the villainy and treachery out to waste!

For I am not a beguiled child

and not a vulnerable adult…

But a very potent soul

If there should be anything like collateral damage

Or I should lay my life down like Dezi Freeman

for being provoked and reacting to the provocation!

But unlike Dezi Freeman, no one will be free of my wrath in posterity

Especially those guilty ones

who brought this upon me with their treachery!!!