Clipped Wings
The world literally and figuratively burns as I sit silently safely nestled at my desk in small town America. Each letter reflects the stark reality of black against white, black engaging with white forming a streaming fluidity and alternative consciousness. A president stokes the flames of insanity, pain, misery, and division not understanding others have to live the pain while he sits protected in the White House. They clipped my wings without permission. One clip-Twitter, Two clip-Facebook, Three clip-Television News, Four clip-Instagram, Five clip-I’m done. Methodically and with force we’ve been stripped of our dreams, made complicit to authoritarian restrictions, and involuntarily subjected to anarchy and chaos. George Floyd’s death, COVID-19, government upheaval, removal of personal freedoms, and economic instability are dismantling the fragile framework and systems we thought were secure. I want to fly away back to a society who superficially understood their responsibility to the world. Brave leaders who imagined peace through positive action, hard work, communication, and love floated like delicate clouds across the skyline of humanities dream for a united and diverse global community. Even if it was a delusion, at least we were embracing a collective purpose. Together we were connecting the international community in real support of our commonalities. What do we have now? The word “hope” lies like shattered glass on our American city sidewalks reflecting the orange embers drifting upwards from the burned-out mom and pop stores. I sit here hopelessly flapping my wings watching useless feathers fill the air unable to move from the quarantined bird cage. I’m stuck, hoping that my wings will quickly heal along with my fellow brothers and sisters so we can somehow reconcile ourselves and others. But I don’t see “hope” any more. I see the “new normal”; things are going to be “different” say the television mannequins. More lies, more cover-ups, more attacks against our undiscovered self.
Masks cover our faces hiding the self-inflicted pain felt from external and internal forces seeking to tear us apart. Everything has been taken and nothing is being given. We all have been subjected to clipped wings. Since you clipped our wings, where do you want us to go? You’ve stolen our health, allowed laws to be circumvented, forced us to rely on government aid, created an environment where stress and anxiety flood our senses, taken our education, and crushed our resolve. Now what. I trusted you who were elected to lead and you have betrayed us with your personal agenda. Here’s the dirty little secret I think most of us have realized. Come close and I’ll whisper or maybe shout it into your fucking ears. I’VE FIGURED OUT YOU HAVE NO PLAN. Caged for the past ten weeks in our homes while being bombarded by misinformation, subjugated to laws that have no basis or explanation, and a personal/collective future exposed as a farce; you Big Brother will have to deal with what you have spawned. If you would have asked me prior to the pandemic whether or not I wanted my wings to grow back like they were before: I would have politely answered back, “Yes.” Now, I realize a mutation has unknowingly been occurring. My budding wings are not the same, they are evolving and sprouting feathers stronger than before in the midst of a world in turmoil. I don’t recognize them but I like them. They seem a healthier fit for this new found strength, balanced outlook, renewed vigor, and engaged mental/physical/spiritual being. Better yet, I embrace them as my “new normal”.