Life Moves
@nipknot
The older I get, the more aware I am of how life moves.
The ebb and flow of existence can seem so trivial / our anxieties, life ending and our worries, individual / amidst a pandemic and a civil rights movement / time slows / I look out to our people / the ones being beat in the streets / the ones holding on for life with tubes down their throats while others lounge in the sun’s heat / and I think / how can I return to the mindset of a “land of the free” when it relentlessly pushes us towards defeat?
There are those eager for a sense of normalcy / but normal was what started the reckoning / normal existed in the mind of the oppressor as the oppressed lived in darkness / normal was the lack of empathy / normal was watching my black friends cower in fear / while some of my white ones act as if they stand in solidarity / but cross the street when a guy in a durag comes near / normal was refusing to accept that a disease was among us / like a single individual could overcome this by speaking it into existence.
@nipknot
The older I get, the more aware I am of how life moves.
If you were to ask me where I thought I would be a year ago / it definitely wouldn’t be here / it wouldn’t be / losing my sense of time as I spend my days stuck at home / moving back and forth between productivity and self pity / just cause a few can’t put on a goddamn mask since it’s not pretty / it wouldn’t be / laying in bed unable to move / wallowing in confusion / stuck in a loop of emotional breakdowns / it wouldn’t be contemplating a life that now more than ever, has no guarantee to continue.
It would be / on a plane to my post-grad Italy trip / It would be on job sites looking for my next big move / It would be sitting on cloud nine / hopeful for the future / excited for the new life I am about to begin / scared yet optimistic that the ups and downs of my 20s would amount to something.
Yet in my hopes that that trip and those opportunities will come / and that my version of happiness will return when it’s supposed to / I push away those expectations / I relinquish my pride and refuse the ego / because I can’t stand parallel to the timeline we’re given.
@nipknot
The older I get, the more aware I am of how life moves.
It hurts to think that there are those that can’t empathize with the pain of others / I used to be angry / horrified / distraught / mad that there was only so much I could do / but I’ve become numb / since 2016 the world I’ve known has taken off its costume / people started coming out of their corners / openly being hateful / unapologetically breaking others down / viciously attacking those different from themselves.
But life keeps moving.
It doesn’t stop for your anger / it doesn’t pause for their hatred / it continues / and each day it does we must hold hands with our brothers and sisters / uplift them from their suffering / stand for them when they can’t / because those in charge won’t / when they prove to be cowards / we must aspire to rise above / when they push against us / we must fight back with twice the might / when equality seems obsolete / and peace look like an impossible feat / seek your place in the fight / because time slows / but life keeps moving.
By Jailyn Duong
Recent Boston University Grad, aspiring screenwriter/actor who secretly wishes she was a YouTuber.