The Trick.

Words are bars to cage oneself in.
Talk a box around the body, and see what can and cannot get in.
The sentences written and spoken-
to ourselves, to each other-
are in many ways interconnected to what we feel,
and the connections we feel to our sisters, and brothers.
There's no denying the movement, there's no denying the pulse.
The beat that falls into line with the beating of all of our rhythmic hearts.
But should that drum stop beating, should that connection- that rope anchoring us to shore- be severed:
what's to stop us from drifting out to see to float aimlessly forever?
It's important to manage ourselves, to keep morality within stable limits.
To force boundaries upon our hopes and dreams, but still continue to try and live them.
It's a game that we all play, that we all must see played to understand the fundamentals if only we could get it down ourselves, maybe we'd be better off.
The trick to winning is not to take part.
The trick to winning is to only make art.
The trick to winning is to make what you feel, to create and inspire no matter what's up, down, right, wrong, imaginary, or real.
The goal is inevitably up to oneself:
a prize only obtainable to yourself.
Maybe something small, such as food to stay alive.
Maybe something materialistic, like just enough money to get by.
But before money, we had freedom; and before freedom we had ourselves.
We built our homes with each other, fed and clothed one another in the hopes that we'd all be willing to help...when the time came.
But the time did come, and not everyone was there to stand their ground.
So the social contract came into being: we can only have our liberties if entrusted with all others' liberties.
It is that freedom that coats the very fibers, the spindles upon spindles of wires, that run through each of us on this Earth.
While some of us are oblivious to the pain of others for various reasons, there are those who are still being hurt.
The trick is to open the eyes.
The trick is to open the mind.
It's a trick not often done in these times, but come hell and high tide, it's time to sign on the dotted lines.

To pay where pay is due: once and for all.
The trick is standing up on our own two legs, and to be stable enough not to fall.