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Do you know what it means
by Jared FladelandDo you know what it means to not exist?
To be in that place of in-between?
We answer all our questions with yes or no,
and we never think twice about what it is we know.
So I ask of you:
Do you know what it means to not exist?
To be the shadow in the corner of the room,
who disappears with the shining of the light,
who only exists from the body of another person's might.
So I implore you to answer:
Do you know what it means to not exist?
Let me reverse for a moment if I may
and explain the politics of what our society might say:
You exist as male or female
right or wrong,
fresh or stale
short or long.
You exist as a system of yes or no
a beauty or you're ugly,
filled with happy or with woe
You're a loner or you're snuggly.
This is what we're told.
So many of us exist between those things,
there cannot be a definite.
So I ask of you, I implore you to say:
Do you know what it means to not exist?
04/19/2011 Posted on 04/19/2011
Copyright © 2024 Jared Fladeland
| Member Comments on this Poem |
| Posted by Charlie Morgan on 04/19/11 at 10:35 PM ...'coures i wanna say yeah, cause i got a degree, but you got a poser there bubba...and too jared, tho we'll nar'e knowd, still we gotta think, eh? |
| Posted by Nicole D Gregory on 04/29/11 at 02:20 AM I find this to be very thought provoking as you have asked; but then I find myself thinking... yah, thanks for reminding me of all the daily snubs I get from people who would rather look at the wall or the floor when they walk by you in the hallway at the office or the people on the elevator who are so interested in the ceiling tiles within the vertical cage rather than make eye contact and just give a basic acknowledgement to another's existence. Which makes the golden rule so ineffective if you would rather be ignored by another soul. ~N |
| Posted by Alison McKenzie on 05/30/11 at 05:43 AM I'm afraid of mostly knowing the OPPOSITE of what it means to not exist, which is the ridiculously self absorbed notion that I am ALL that exists. Heh. Humanity was never advertised as the most functional species on the planet. Ever. |
| Posted by Katerina T Nix on 06/22/11 at 11:02 PM Great read, Jared. The ancient Greek philosophers would love you (they talked about this issue at length- Parmenides in particular). Well done :) |
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