More obvious than DNA, presence
or personality: identity. Individually,
names are given out by someone else,
by family or memory. Titles awarded
before character is developed,
without our knowledge.
A voice we live with. Should you
call out, what will you hear? A name:
in the end, all we are left with. Goodbye.
What you remember and often forget.
Introduction requires random thought
of specific examples.
Fingerprint fact and interpretation, a
name, birth date, statistics, history always
living proof of every step taken, up until
now. Evidence you are all you believe in,
selfish presentation of self-image, under
circumstances that change along with us.
Do you represent what others might think?
How well do they know you? Would you
be any different under any other name?
Will that person remain the same as you
if it were true? Hello. Ask yourself.
It is a hard title to live up to.
© 2021 j.g. lewis
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One reply on “A Personal Stake”
As long as capitalism is accepted as a righteous way to live, as a solid foundation for “civilized society,” we will continue to gobble up earth’s resources, convert them to poisons, and spew them back out into the air. Human beings are nothing other than a cancer, ravenously devouring its host, with no predators to stop its destruction. Whoever thinks that human kind is God’s final piece of work was devilishly deceived. And as long as human kind thinks they were that final piece of creation they will continue to do what they’ve always done. It’s a despairing and desolate view, tempered only by communing with nature, where one can still find it, and sharing love and compassion with those who still recognize it, and clinging to a determination to leave only bare footprints behind.