The Revolt

Life is a revolt.

Happiness is a revolt.

For almost all of our lives, we have been told to 'not do' things.

Not to sleep too late, not to sleep till late. Not to ignore the important things in life, as had been defined by the rule makers. Not to question the definitions of those rule makers.

From an early age, we have been taught that these rules are rigid, unmalleable.

And these rules, they become like barbed wires
Or the white picket fences, gleaming in the summer sunlight

Forever present, forever on their quest
To keep within their confines what grows within their boundaries

But life is wild
Biology in untamable
And so, they prune
They mow the grass that grows too wild
And they cut the branches that dare to go beyond

And in their quest to make it pretty
They forget Life
Life is adventure
Life is unbridled exploration

Like the plant growing indoors
That stretches its branches, a millimetre a day
Or perhaps even less
Towards that window, and the gleaming sunlight beyond
Patiently waiting for that day

Like the many rats that find their way into your home
Through the sewers and the the cracks in the walls
Or the cracks under the doors
Theirs is a life too, revolting against the man-made illusion of security

In our haste to prune and to protect
We often miss the beady black eyes that stare at us for a while
Before they disappear, whisking away into the darkness
We miss the stubbornness of the weeds
Which grow in spite of being hacked away
As though they would never learn
Or choose to never learn

We fail to realize that little by little, life strangles the metal bars
It drills the picket fences hollow, it brings down walls with nothing more than creepers
And we fight, we resist, we cut away, hoping and wishing and praying
That in this fight, we win
The metal bars hold on, the fences stay white and strong
And the walls keep standing, sturdy
But life can't be contained by walls or bars or fences
Life moves on, life breaks the rules
And if a few bars bend, if a few fences decay
If a few walls crumble down, so be it.