So What If People Stare - A Poem by Atma

[Guest guest]

My culture leaves me a choice to keep

my mouth shut and live as who I am not.

Perhaps it is the media and corporate

greed from where it is taught.

In these views I am torn, living outside

my truth in a so-called "Norm".

What is old age? – Wisdom or a

fearful dread?

Grey hair? – Ugly old threads? Or SO WHAT, it's on my head!

Wrinkles? – A face-lift to erase

time? Or keep the lines that have no

lies?

Teeth falling out? Character or poverty?

Death? Hide an eye or celebrate & build a pyre when

someone dies?

A face? Make up to feed an insecurity? Or shine bright due to yoga at night?

A few pounds here or there? A crime to weigh more? Or a life cycle hike?

Styles, trends, a new haircut, new

friends - Fit in, feel astray or walk away?

 

Pop a pill - Will it heal or will it

kill?

Alcohol and smoking, poisons for pain

or you just can't fulfill?

Cows happily grazing, big brown eyes

in a field or in a stock line to be killed?

Chickens joyfully pecking around or

squished in cages cramped & over-filled?

Unnatural production of turkeys

abound? Dragging their breasts on the ground.

Because of more white meat to be

found.

At Thanksgiving mutated birds, one for

every family's table at a discount

Even with their struggle among each

other never getting a chance to mount

How sick to eat these dead &

tortured creatures, hear their screams shrill?

What kind of culture are we that kills

in this sick way for stomachs to fill?

Or are you numb and blind to go along

with this senseless drill?

Or do you justify it's more humane to

kill peaceful creatures from the foothills?

For who? You or the creature that enjoys wandering

& has a free will?

Round and round, birth & death -

what goes around comes around still.

Strong perfumes, soaps and deodorants

to cover our smell?

Or chemicals that leach into our skin

for a profit? Sshh! Don't tell.

Cancer eating us away so we are

forced to pray? Or is it to pay?

Or is it living in the vibration of our

true self that we've been led astray?

Medical Insurance – Pays a sick bill up

to nil. What? Is that anger I feel?

50 years married – A noble

compromise? Or a life sucked up along a

sunrise?

A hairy face, legs and arm pits too? Is to shave a way of life? Or a sell-out device?

Are you joking? The skin is meant to be bare?

What about the amazing force behind

that hair?

So what if people stare!

What kind of person goes along with

this corrupt façade?

Fearful and shallow, living someone

else's song.