Becca Stevens
Accepted absurdity awakening
Neglected realism once dormant, now scrambling
To grasp for distraction like holding on to sand
And deflect a narrowing focus on empty hands
Knowing now a harrowing and dreaded rising certainty
We all swallow whole, involuntarily, flesh and core of fallen rotten fruit
And wallow willingly in this grand delusion
The act of keeping all of it down consumes you
Like a disease, even in sleeping
It drains you.
Profound ugliness can take root in all of us
Potential malevolence lurks in dark halls of us
Pushed behind doors, and collectively stifled
Hate-mongered into silence by societal rivals,
Skillfully, subtly, biblically
For fear of being deemed demonic
Devilish ideals (devised by us, and made of us) take hold
How can we be so vain to paint our fears as any different from us?
For shame.
When we look to time to wash the darkness down
Time and rotten soil make festered roots bare horrid truths we’ll
Spend a lifetime to unlearn
But when crude light shines upon cruel seeds
Collective truth is plain to see
Taking root in pain and peace
And vicious blooms of history
Will sprout, and rot, for us to glean
What needs to come, like spring
From cracks of tired earth.
Hate is learned, not passed genetically
And thrives when given reign to weave maliciously
And love’s not built to give conditionally
Conditions lead the heart to atrophy
As every heart that loves needs love, intrinsically
In birth we only know the endless sense of one, united
And then learn step by step to feel divided
This is the fabric that connects us:
The need we have in common
And the pain from being denied it
Neglected realism once dormant, now scrambling
To grasp for distraction like holding on to sand
And deflect a narrowing focus on empty hands
Knowing now a harrowing and dreaded rising certainty
We all swallow whole, involuntarily, flesh and core of fallen rotten fruit
And wallow willingly in this grand delusion
The act of keeping all of it down consumes you
Like a disease, even in sleeping
It drains you.
Profound ugliness can take root in all of us
Potential malevolence lurks in dark halls of us
Pushed behind doors, and collectively stifled
Hate-mongered into silence by societal rivals,
Skillfully, subtly, biblically
For fear of being deemed demonic
Devilish ideals (devised by us, and made of us) take hold
How can we be so vain to paint our fears as any different from us?
For shame.
When we look to time to wash the darkness down
Time and rotten soil make festered roots bare horrid truths we’ll
Spend a lifetime to unlearn
But when crude light shines upon cruel seeds
Collective truth is plain to see
Taking root in pain and peace
And vicious blooms of history
Will sprout, and rot, for us to glean
What needs to come, like spring
From cracks of tired earth.
Hate is learned, not passed genetically
And thrives when given reign to weave maliciously
And love’s not built to give conditionally
Conditions lead the heart to atrophy
As every heart that loves needs love, intrinsically
In birth we only know the endless sense of one, united
And then learn step by step to feel divided
This is the fabric that connects us:
The need we have in common
And the pain from being denied it