L. B. Mek

Live it: your way!

 

It’s ok, to not: be ok

 

Struggling to find those sunshine rays

on a cloudless day,

or sparkling stars on a moonless night

 

feeling alone while at the epicentre

of your family gathering, 

or craving attention while being a shut-in

 

It’s ok, to not: be ok

 

If years of dedication to showcase

your talents, merely make you a target

while those you deem, talentless

seemingly triumph without effort

 

It’s ok, to not: be ok

 

When grief becomes a permanent shadow, anchoring

your heart and shackling your lungs

dreading, your lonesome tomorrow’s

so each sipped breath, is an epic poem to overcome 

 

It’s ok, to not: be ok

 

If your childhood is a nightmare tale

horror Genres are Too scared, to tell

 

It’s ok, to not: be ok

 

Fighting for love

with everything you have

while other’s, brazenly

take and ask for more

then forget to wave

as they sail for glitzier shores

 

It’s ok, to not: be ok

 

If you read these words

and Smirk, knowingly

at the foolishness

of us, whom you deem

far less intelligent 

for enabling

those you view, as a scourge 

by spouting our empty words

of wishful hope

when you know, for certain

at that bleak hour

no one

would ever, bother

to check

if you still remembered, a time 

when breathing

wasn’t something, you did

without, first

having to remind yourself

it’s something: you need.

 

It’s ok, to not: be ok

 

If you read these words

and laugh, at how absurd

some people dramatize

mere brushstrokes, with pain

because you’re certain

weakness, is only a mindset

easily corrected, if people

would only get a backbone, I mean

look how successful, you’ve turned

that hellishly vile beginning, to your life

now,

what you’ve come to realise

as a gift, for shaping you

into something wilfully, unbreakable 

and so what, if your tear ducts

are mere ash

seared-tight by all that burning hate

you Choose, to fuel

your painstakingly bleak

daily survival. 

 

It’s ok, to not: be ok

 

If you can’t read a word of English 

but find your emotions bubbling 

and your eyes, glistening 

yearning, to know

this cathartic experience’s, true meaning

or

have an Oxbridge doctorate

in languages

but find yourself, befuddled 

by the sheer pointlessness 

of what you’ve just been reading

 

It’s ok, to not: be ok

 

It’s ok if you think, politics

is our only meaningful answer

or revolutionary anarchy

our only way to stave-off, extinction 

 

It’s ok if you feel, religion

is our only solution 

or you wish there was a deity

just, to have your say

 

It’s ok if science is a nuclear certainty

for our demise, in your eyes

or if you can’t wait for nirvana’s promise

of time travelling, immortality 

 

It’s ok, if you can’t find the energy to care

about anyone or anything and simply stare

 

or, you prefer perching on fences.

 

Truly: it’s ok to not, be ok

for our lives didn’t come

with a start-up manual 

of do’s and don’ts

or small print promises

of happiness and peace

 

All we started with

was a beating heart

and a gasp of air

 

everything else

every gesture

every thought

every sound

every word 

every moment

 

we created, ourselves 

by design, maybe

or stubborn luck, possibly 

 

So really, I promise you

it’s perfectly natural

that we’re all

so imperfectly, fallible 

together and individually 

existing, as part

of a seemingly chaotic

universe, within Nature’s

cyclical, weather bubble 

of conflicting, gravitational balance 

between our glimmering, hopeful nights

and our consequences of stark, daylight. 

 

It’s ok to not, be ok

what matters, Most

is that we Fight, to grasp

at those featherweight tethers to Fortitude

striving to survive, long enough 

to take that next, all-important breath

knowing, all of existence 

asked nothing more of us, from the start

 

so all those crippling fears and aspirations 

we helped manifest into our lives

we can simply, try to ignore

for now, and just concentrate 

 

on experiencing

one more breath

one more second

and eventually, hopefully

one more rise

one more step

on our march

 

to whatever, better

we look to aspire towards

Choosing: for ourselves...

 

Or not, and simply wait

for inevitability’s, final note…

 

It’s ok, to not: be ok!

 

Just remember 

if you’re Living, through it

Chances are

you Know of someone

that’s already: Survived it!

or Sadly

Mercifully, they’ve escaped it…

 

Time, is fleetingly finite

seems pointless, to waste it

rather, lets loot our share

and boldly choose: to live it! 

 

 

© L. B. Mek 

April 2021