Day 47. Your Executioner - an Introduction

Day 47 of the Poetry for Peace Poemathon. Saturday 2nd June 2018. There are always those ready and willing to put people down, to decry and defame humanity, especially the individuals themselves. People need reminding of their innate greatness. Enough said, here is the poem.

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Your Executioner - an Introduction

by Steve Cook

Never forget

You're a spirit, my brother,

With potential much greater

Than anyone ever

Let you discover.

You've been told you ain't

Able, immortal or wise,

And the more you agree

The more it'll trap you

In this matrix of lies.

Convinced you're mediocre,

You stopped hoping for much

But the occasional smile

And a chemical crutch.

You switched on the TV

And toned down your dreams,

Made yourself smaller

To fit the machine.

Yet the chains that restrain you

Are entirely self-made,

You live out your days

In a cage of ideas

Held down by your shadow,

In a twilight of fear.

There's nothing more lethal

Than lies self-told,

Spiritual death

By self deprecation,

You know how it goes:

"I'm too small, too scared,

Too feeble, too slow or too old

And there are too many factors

Beyond my control.

I hover forever

On the brink of defeat,

Quietly desperate

To stay on my feet.

You gotta believe me,

I'm not much of a threat,

So worn down by loss

There's not much of me left."

And "I couldn't, I mustn't, I shouldn't,

I daren't or I can't,

Are all ways of saying simply,

"I won't."

Of course, the more that you say it

The more it comes true,

For you are life's only

Source absolute,

And though you elect others

To turn on the juice,

Your sole executioner

Is most certainly you.