I am alive
Breathing, laughing, loving,
After years spent in shadows
As a sick child clinging fear, and fight.
Grateful for this fragile heartbeat,
For the sunrise I never thought I’d see.

I no longer chase the world,
Nor care to please its fickle crowd.
It’s okay to be oblivious,
To stand alone inside truth.
Let me be free from the weight of others,
Their opinions, their fleeting praise.

But still, things often makes me cross
The career, the grind,
Responsibility that demand to protect who I love.
We inherit no riches, no legacies,
Only dreams of distant lands,
Where I long to roam but need to earn.
In this world, in this culture,
The work is endless, and the joy so thin.

The rich and capitalists tell us to dream but not to demand,
To work harder for less.
They preach hope while building walls,
Stacking their gold, as we count our hours.
They’ve created a stage with no escape,
A game rigged before we even begin.

But I see a path yet to unfold,
Bestowed by a universe waiting,
For someone like me,
To carve a road the world has never known.
Not a race, but a quiet walk
Like the turtle, slow and sure,
Who finds abundance in each step.
There is always a loop hole no one knows.

They never waste a moment,
Their time is theirs to build and shape,
While we are made to chase illusions,
Lost in the standards they set.
But I choose differently,
To live a life of gratitude,
Not in their race, but in my own.
There is always a loop hole no one knows.

-A Solivagant’s Shoes