consciously

today,
more than other days.
there is a calmness over me.

the craftiness of the mind
spun stories and coagulated the crises
I believed would come my way.

was I really so foolish
to believe I deserved
such pain?

with all the hot irons
scalding the internal skin and tissue of my
compatriots floating here,

with all the morning yawns
wretched with guilt and hopelessness
and a desire to sleep peacefully,

with all the torment
we seem to have imported from a parallel universe
of hatred and fear,

here I am, awakening with homemade breakfast,
the solitude of dark drawn shades
and right finally being victorious over injustice.

Living consciously is in the realisation
that simple choices bring
the ease of happiness.

the plastic handcuffs of my anxious mind
are easily melted upon
the fires of confrontation.

they needn’t be so tightly bound around the thoughts
that hold back this spirited creation
of my imagination.

for we choose the air we intake.

we can douse ourselves in fog
and hope to catch a glimpse of sunlight,
sometime.

we can waver where poor levels of oxygen
sit worriedly waiting the asphyxiation
of their brothers and sisters.

we can tread in the pollutant ridden streams
and gasp for someone to pull us away from behind
out of this mess.

or we can sit up,
smile at the marvel of the inhaling process,
and breathe.