EMANCIPATION
(Spoken Word Poetry)
(Watch Video Here)
Here I lay, chained in a bright realm of squared light
Head cowered in homage, spine stiffened in immobility
Fingers flipping over my digital companion
Touch - intense, endless caresses back and forth
Soft touch, hard press.
Thump!
Thump!!
Thump!!!
A tired thumb fed up with the ritual of touch
What’s to see on the smooth skin of this mobile tool?
Addiction!
The bad, the good and the ugly truth bared
Many masked faces behind contents in make believe environs
Everyone's speaking, no one’s listening but my soul
Bouts of emotions embracing me in a split of an hour
Seconds seeping through, minutes diminishing, hours turning to grey,
In wishful thinking and momentary chill, I bleed myself away.
My mind in turmoil, multifarious ideas waltzing through my brain
Lost within the noise, the constant beep, my head barely above the waves
My focus in pieces, intellect paralysed, ache behind my weary eyes.
I let out a moan beneath the cloudy digital skies.
HELP, I NEED HELP!
Au secours!
Pi, Gemini, Google voice, dearest companions
They proffer help - aid that lacked the warmth of true embrace
Depression beckons, inadequacy fills my dwindling soul
I can't feel my legs in this ocean of surreal world
My fingers numb, my voice drowned in the jamboree of ideologies
SNAP!
SNAP!!
Ghostly eyes and a forced smile behind masked lens
Mirror, mirror on the wall
Am I still the fairest of them all?
Pretty huh? I feel the awwns, ooohs and wows
But a hollow heart cries out with outstretched arms
I want out,
SAVE ME!
Softly and tenderly I heard the quiet voice within
A soft tug, a nudge that cannot be ignored
What, my child, do you desire?
What craves your weary heart?
A piercing truth stemming from my very core
A silent wisdom trying to push forth again
The true self sprouting and seeking validation
Fighting back the force that lulls wisdom to bed
STOP!
ENOUGH!
I WANT OUT NOW!
I have become a fragment of the person I ought to be.
Distorted in form like images on a playhouse mirror
Conforming to norms that keep me in a box
No sense of self, a hollow of emptiness and void
How long will digital tools eat up our snaziness, our steeze?
Gobble up our creativity and style, and originality become histoire
Is there still hope to be me, pure me, unadulterated me?
I want some stillness, I want some peace.
Such peace where mental sterility would cease.
A world where the true voice that speaks comes from the deep
To hear my own heart beat - slow, profound, and free
LIBERATE MY MIND,
LIBERATE MY SOUL!
I crave the smell of crispy fresh, refined wooden books
To lose myself in narratives so in-depth, soulful and inciting
To wake to discernment, a thought that’s purely mine,
Enriched by subtle wisdom devoid of electromagnetic bits
Purged of the urge to share, to be followed, digitally liked or loved
Of digital reiteration and overwhelming abundance of online freebies.
I long for the snuggly unfiltered air of dawn when I run at the seashore
To ease my muscles that scream from stillness, chair-bound plight,
Tendons and ligaments that yearn to burn, to struggle, to fight.
Refined under the fiery stare of Lagos’ morning sun
I want to look at the sun at dawn in the eye
Tell the moon it's cool all the same, half crescent or full
And smell the rich aroma of blooming flowers
Taste the first dew and sing, cry in the rain
I long to be grateful for every little grace
To sit still at the early hours of the day, meditate
To cleanse from within, rebirthing something new
I desire the gushing flow of muse, the blood that runs in my pen
To plant on plain sheets, musings, scattered thoughts of wisdom
To find perspective, solace, a place of peace
Where broken thoughts like butterflies with broken wings
Learn to heal and flap again their beautiful wings
To mend, amend and defend with words a mutilated world
Emancipation!
Set me free,
To notice the smiles on the faces on the street
To greet a neighbour next door and share similar pains
To fish out true feelings not plastic or metallic love online
To smell a rich, warm, invigorating cup of coffee or tea
A life full of contentment and true serenity
A world of productivity and true creativity
Freedom to use tools and not to be used by tools.
How enthralling will be the taste of emancipation again!
Photo Credit
cmonionline.com
pixabay
