A poem by Rudolf Ogoo Okonkwo.
You have so many layers peeling off
Nothing will be left when you exit the labyrinths
So welcome to the place
Where emotions accumulate like runaway floodwater
It builds and builds and builds
Until it takes you with it
Smashing through fortified brackets
To a place elephants sleep
Making statements without periods.
It is a brand new suspense tunnel
Made scarier by its need to be discreet
Like a lazy cloud
It hovers over your head by day,
Like a drunk ghost
It lurks in the dark by quicksand.
To escape the nightmare
A version of you steps out of your head
Takes a bird's eye view at you and gets scared
It rushes back inside
And covers you with blanket of doubts
On which the psychedelic catechism is written:
What is very important
Must also be very dangerous.
Like a tattoo on the tongue
The lore of the anonymous
Mocks your shy candle
But when status quo ferments
Myths go naked
Incarcerating yesterday deities
For incurring deficit in dreams
Superstition doesn't blink
Else it sets ablaze
The gown of the fallen hope.
Even when it hurts
There is a feral purpose why it exists.
Stop being shadow’s puppet
Take a ride on petals of fire
For that’s what it means to be human.
You don’t need an answer
If it is your truth.
If you don’t learn something about the world
You’ll learn something about yourself
And how where you want to go,
Following the path of thunder’s snake
Is a house of dreams
That is built on memories
With feathers lined up the streets
It invites us to madness.
Rudolf Ogoo Okonkwo is the author of "This American Life Sef."