“The Routine”
If time is relative, is my life relative?
Is my existence relative?
Am I just a dog chasing his tail?
My job, my family, my friends, my desires, my hopes, and aspirations,
What am I if not the machinations of “The Routine”?
Do I ride the wave and trajectory of the current?
Shall I be a prisoner of the status quo?
A cog in the machine, a statistic,
A life that was predetermined,
That was carefully nurtured and curated,
By a world that punishes the souls that dare to ponder the question “why”?
Why play it safe?
Why work 40 plus hours?
Why only have one career?
Why not love and fuck other people?
Why not me?
When do I stop asking why,
Let my myself surrender to my hedonistic inclinations,
To strip off the chains of my mundanity.
When does my shadow stop casting out of boredom and apathy?
Have I accepted that I hate the choices I have made?
Especially the ones that has led to me to become the antagonist.
“The Routine” has become my existential warden,
Reinforcing the mind when to fall in line.
The morning purrs has signified “The Routine” has been initiated.
Feed my feline lords their liquid treasures,
Eat the same fucking sugary Target birthday cake oatmeal,
Journey on a 21-minute quest to my place of indentured servitude.
I breathe in my acceptance of mediocrity.
Teach the language of the imperialists for 6 numbing hours,
To teenage displacements of our glass utopia,
Profusely sweat for 45 minutes on a wet stationary bike,
Only to realize I’m on vehicle that is not taking me to a new destination.
Come home and cook to feed the organic vessel,
So, I can continue to put out my capitalistic pimp.
“The Routine,” must suffer a long, enduring, and agonizing end of life.
A Phoenix cannot surface from ashes that are still burning.
I was at an English teacher conference in Monterey high on edibles while I wrote this. I was tired of feeling that everything was stagnant and there was no excitement to my life. My whole day is planned and there was no room for spontaneity or adventure. This poem explore wanted to break from your routine.
#existential