Defiance was written when I started responding to bullies and gaslighters and I fought the narrative defined for me to follow

 

Instructions carved in rocks, I hold them against me.

The rules we brought down from the hill, burning and shouting.

Someone there said they were right, and when they were gone from sight

We knew we held a treasure; our future assured.

Their rightness soothed us, we all knew instinctively that

I carried ephemeral words, caught and captured them for eternity –

Unchanging, laid in stone.  Handed to me, a burden to tend and keep clean

My flesh ready, arms wide, straining to hold, showing,

Encouraging and honing. Years of grooming and recoding

To see only these words. I cannot choose otherwise, there is no otherwise;

If I looked around, behind, if I cast them aside

I would be lost, thrown away with the broken rocks that hold ideas unyielding.

Permanence gives them power they do nothing to maintain

They are nothing without our constant refrain.

Edges blur as time inches by, the constant rain wears them away.

My fading eyesight sees not the words but the message.

Rocks can shatter or break, it seems words can be re-spoken;

Who would know if the rocks were broken? And the words reformed,

Rewritten with chalk on slate, then wiped away, concepts updated

That can be discarded and disregarded when the lines blur

And their purpose is served. Who would know but me?