This was a task set in my English class for our sub-topic on Slam! Poetry. Mine came 1st - It was written to be performed but hopefully it is alright to be read. Mine is about civilization, I hope you enjoy and are enlightened a little ;D
--Civilization--
What is wrong?
What is right?
What is "civilized"?
They say to be civilized is to know wrong and right,
How to carry on into the day out of the deep, black night,
To know the difference between wrong and right -
The two superpowers that overrule humans, in fright -
And eliminate just one of them...
But what is wrong?
Is it wrong for children to pluck out the wings of butterflies?
Is it wrong that they should cry then when the withered creature finally dies?
Is it wrong for the abused wife and mother to want to take her children and leave,
When the father loves his sons but for her still has swords he won't sheathe?
Is it wrong that we live in luxury while there are wild men in the wood?
That we may have velvet, silk and satin, they have naught but dirt and mud?
Is it wrong that we should want our way, want more and not want other's ways?
Is it wrong that we should disagree, argue, fight and get into frays?
Is it wrong that anything other than man and wife should exist in love?
Is it wrong that some get up and search while others wait for a gift from above?
Is it wrong that we should make music and dances and song?
Is it wrong that we wonder about right and about wrong?
Wrong is a plague that has cursed humans for years,
A stabbing, stinging resonance in a billion human ears;
Wrong is a harsh word that inspires the cries -
A parasite, a knife, a web of strife - in a billion human eyes;
Wrong differs from person to person, wrong has differed from time to time;
Is it wrong to love or wrong to shove the evil from their crime?
Wrong would not exist if it were not for the illusion
Invented for civilization, which simultaneously created this pollution
Of the human mind...
"What is wrong?"
"What is right?"
Civilization.
Civilization and society
That says that it is wrong for me
And you, and them
To do whatever vexes them.
Or maybe, what perplexes them.
They say to be civilized is to know wrong and right,
How to carry on into the day out of the deep, black night,
But what is this night if not the night of unknowing
That humans fear?
We are moths pulled to the glowing lantern of what we're comfortable knowing
That humans adhere to.
We may argue about right and about wrong,
But I think I know what right is,
And to others, it's probably wrong...
It is wrong to take what is not rightfully yours
(A sweetie or a treasure or the key to the front doors)
Comfort, and assurance, and, only theirs, life;
It is wrong to do something for the sake of causing strife;
It is wrong to go around with a gun or a knife
With the intent of taking some innocent life.
It is wrong to abuse one 'til they tremble and quake;
It is wrong to be fake and to take and to take;
It is wrong to condemn others for an unknown sin;
It is wrong to ruthlessly steal away another's beloved kin;
To say that you hate me for the colour of my skin;
To protest that you don't like the clothes that I'm in,
The hanging, already widow's cloth on the bare naked skin...
We may argue about right and about wrong,
But I think I know what right is,
And if civilization is about right and about wrong
And enforcing only one of them...
I think I'd rather be a wild thing, shivering and thin,
Furry and blurry with eyes and ears that spin to the din
That is real life.
Rather free
Than caged
Like an old speckled hen in a steel prison barely fitter for a wren,
Doomed to spew and tumble out this same old speckled egg.
Rather free than caged
In this zoo you call... "Civilized"?
I'm amazed.
