People: A Poem on the Hidden Struggles of Life
In a place where tales abound,
Where stories are told and retold,
One woman stood alone,
Her time stopped in its race,
She found a home in the heads of those like her,
Hidden in the dark, shielding their scars from the light,
Until they were free-falling through space,
And all their inadequacies were displayed in a flash.
In a town where love was said to conquer all,
Hate held the throne on the blocks.
For every ace up your sleeves,
A king exists who sees the joker in you,
And all the tales you told as a joke.
Nothing you ever write will be good enough, Yemi
Every story exists, waiting to be told by someone, but it ain’t you
Whose inadequacies found grace in the message in a bottle
Do you think they don’t know?
That your eyes are red because you’re fighting demons too,
And not because of the deadlines at work,
Your mind is foggy, you carry the weight of what if’s
And the facade of a smile, hiding your true self,
Buried deep inside a grave
You think they don’t know you run from the alcohol that numbs the pain,
Because you have other ways of managing the pains
That people don’t really know you?
And they don’t see the bag of paranoia you carry around,
The buried pain and the shattered pieces,
That you’ve kept hidden from the world
Wondering, when it all ends?
How is any of us still alive?
You aren’t the only one,
Asking whichever gods you pray to;
Why am I here?
Why is anyone still here?
When everything you worry about has happened,
You aren’t the only one that’s seen it all,
Everything that has happened is now a part of us all,
The parts of us that feels too much,
The part of us that clung on to hope,
And unlike you, people need closure
So tell me Yemi, did you check on her?
“But I’ve been drinking more alcohol for the past 5 days too
Did you check on me?
Now did you look for me?
I walked in the room
Eyes were red
And I don smoke Banga
Did you check on me?
Now did you notice me?
Nobody will know the paranoia, oh!
’Cause I put a smile on my face
A facade you can never face
And if you don’t know me well well oh
You won’t see how buried I am inside my grave
Inside my grave
’Cause you see people
People!
People!
People don’t really know you,
They don’t really know you,
…I’ve been drinking more alcohol for the past five days”
In the darkness, there is still hope,
For a message in a bottle to wash ashore,
And bring grace to the inadequacies,
That we all try to hide.
Inspired by the music of Libianca titled “People”
Image credit: @CreateHappy
