Reclaiming Self

Two inquisitive minds question reality

Image by James Superschoolnews.

Woke or Bespoke - Maarten Bleijerveld

Must you toil as they simply wait?
Pulling the load with no helping hand?
Is it wrong to decline, though it causes some pain?
To speak what you mean—can’t they understand?
Why must we bend beneath such weight?

When did we learn to please, not fight?
To bury our truths, let silence reign?
To follow the flow, though it feels so strange?
Why is the boldness to stand seen as disdain?
When did we lose the strength of our light?

The cycle turns, as time will show.
Exclusion’s push becomes inclusion’s face.
The herd moves forward, confused and slow.
Guided by a leash to an uncertain place,
We drift along where currents flow.

© Maarten Bleijerveld 2025

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Image by Lance Reis.

I Really Want a Job - H. R. Sinclair

I really want a job.
A job I can do at the job
and leave the job there
taking nothing home.
And I really want a home.
A home that’s mine and my wife’s,
one that’s calm and free and
not too broken but just enough to
D.I.Y

I want this home in a town too,
small enough to know who I know,
to share some milk with the neighbours
and know the barista’s name but still
big enough to inspire
the kids we raise there
one, two or three.
probably two you can’t leave one on its own
and who wants to be outnumbered?
Two kids to explore the town
and run around the home
and excite me to come back from the job.
I want to make my kids proud
and be proud of them

but really I just want a job.
Just one job, not
two, three or four.
one that will pay for the universities
of these kids and
whatever my wife wants and
maybe something nice on Christmas day,
a coffee some days and
the streaming services and
the cinema tickets I buy
in some nostalgic attempt
to return to what I want.

then again, I really want no job
at all, rather
some life on a tropical island
hanging from trees in
hammocks reading poetry
and drinking coconuts raising children in
natural roots
where grandma's roam with wisdom
and boats stay beached
offering the eternal possibilities
of the far off horizon

or I’ll throw away my phone
dematerialise into the mountains
of Tibet
and meditate on everything i’ve done and doing and will do
and meditate then on just the I
to remove the I and look through the eye³

but, then again, how would I afford the cinema?

© H. R. Sinclair 2025

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