The Only Road I Know
There are other roads, they say
You could take them any day
You're just another traveler
Just another face seen in passing
Why do you act as though you're any different?
Why do you feel the need
To be treated as if you were special?
I may be just another traveler
I may not be worth noticing in passing
I don't think I'm special
But I am very different
And it has made a difference
I travel the only road I know
I travel the only road I can
~Fae~
Notes:
As someone who has lived with mental illness all my life, including suicide ideation and self-injury, I get tired of the kinds of people who say that those with issues like mine are "just looking for attention" or "just want to be special."
"Just change the way you think!" they say. "You can do anything if you put your mind to it!"
"Just travel my road," they say.
Others say I am "brave" to be so "unique and original". I march to the beat of my own drum. I travel my own road.
It's the only beat I can feel, and it's the only road I can travel.
I'm not brave. I'm just surviving as best I can, which sometimes isn't easy in a world that treats people like me with disdain and/or pity.
We are such judgmental creatures. And getting worse. If anyone is different they are shunned. It breaks my heart. Your poem strikes that emotional chord... you travel the only road open to you. Good for you for speaking up about it.
ReplyDeleteThank you. I was always different. It's taken many years for me not to hate my self for it.
DeleteThe title says it all.
ReplyDeleteSometimes I hit the mark!
DeleteThanks for visiting.
Ever notice those naysayers are travelling in the opposite direction?
ReplyDeleteHow do they know that people like you and me don't have the map? :)
They're traveling in a direction that I've come to realize I don't want to go in. A direction of self-absorbed mean-spiritedness, and at the heart of it, they are really very insecure. I may be a mess, but at least I'm honest about it!
DeleteThanks for visiting. :-)