Lucid Intervals

Self-awareness finally
I’m no longer puzzled
By what I am now
I am a child
So much expected of me
Grow up, obey, learn
I know what I must do
Grow strong, be a man
Subservient to my masters
Everyone is above me
I will learn who I am

Mother
Nurse me, clean me, and teach how I am to act
To young as yet to write the rules
Maybe some day that will change
I will be what I wish

Learning
Language, faces and shapes
Society’s rule over me
Strangers are in charge
Schooling followed by work
Life goes on and I grow and things change
Then things change and I grow, life goes on
I am getting sick of this
Being under your foot

Life goes on and I grow and things change
Then things change and I grow, life goes on
Forge an identity other than somebody’s slave
I will work to free myself from society’s evil grip
Its hatred of the individual I will break the bonds that were forced on me at birth
Man is born free but everywhere is in chains

I am forced to work, to learn a trade, to earn my keep
I am told to slow, settle and find another
I have become what I have feared most, a spouse, a dad, I’m chained
I’m no longer free to pursue my dreams, my destiny has run its course
Born into this world I was free of sins, but not without a path carved in stone by generations of the same men
I’m trapped and I cannot get out!
I struggle with the chains on my feet but the harder at them that I pull
The links become more entangled and ensnared

I’m tired
I give in I will conform
If I must I’ll play by the rules
And I do and when I do

I succeed
Now I’m getting old
I prepare for my rest
I look back at what I’ve done, at what I’ve created
Maybe my kin can break the chains that have bound me from first light
Maybe the new generation can fix the problems that have plagued mine