Poem Book | A Journey With a Shy Soul

Prove Your Humanity

Look to the left
Look to the right
Do you see beggars with daggers?
Or ones with collars?

Pollution, corruption
As evil disguises
Captured by the phones at night

Dim is the consciousness that guided our lives
Gave up to nonsense that our interest buys
How could you possibly be considered as human at this moment
When constellations are formed by ignorance and misguidance?

Can you prove your humanity without it in vain?
Is it love and cherish that keeps us sane?
Slumber is what the world inherits
Enslaved by minds and terrors that haunt it

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This poem talks about how lost many humans are and how they have strayed from the path that allows them to think correctly. Many people talk about how society has become cruel, stupid, and careless in their decisions. For me, it is not simply society, but the responsibility of taking care of your mind that leads you to the direction of your life. However, a majority of people are indeed careless in this responsibility and it has led to a staggering rise of animal-minded people. This mindset has given way to corruption and evil in one's life and as a result, makes them toxic. This makes me wonder how they could prove their humanity again after seeing the impression they painted for themselves.

Although, it's often that people skip over the good sides of the internet. Communities can be formed through social media and I believe that if all you see is trash content and toxicity, you are in the wrong place. You couldn't blame the area you are in for how you are shaped when you always have the choice to find better content to consume. Algorithm is a tool that gives you the content of your preference and it shouldn't be entirely blamed for giving you absurd and mind-degraded videos.

*Meanings

[First stanza, last verse]
This is about the people who feel enslaved (or even if they don't notice) to the content they are being fed on the internet. Collars are put on animals to show ownership, displaying how some people have completely given up on responsibility and allowed themselves to be influenced wrongly by social media. Some people learn bad attitudes and habits from it and are unwilling to change them. If you try to teach or tell them the right thing, they will be unpleasant and hard-headed. That shows a trapped mind- stubbornness is what keeps them in a cage.

[Third stanza, third verse]
This actually is talking about the viewer's thoughts (and mine) when they see crazy and garbage videos. It's true that even with the foolishness and stubbornness of these content creators, they are human nonetheless and have the free will to act like this. They are not completely submitted to the nonsensical actions they do until it has become an intense habit, so it is important to still treat them as human despite their animalistic behaviors on the screen.

[Third stanza, last verse]
"Constellations" is used as a metaphor for communities, fandoms, and comment sections. If you look at different groups of interests formed by people, most of them often share a sort of "personality" or a way they act and speak. Some groups are toxic and some are friendly. The verse is talking about the bad groups like the comment section of a genre in the videos on social media platforms.

[Last stanza, first verse]
Even if I haven't seen it yet, it is said that there are people who decord themselves doing something for the poor to be proud of themselves. There are also double faced people, who are good in front of the crowd but are unpleasant once in private. If you want to prove your humanity, you have to be genuine and true about your actions towards the weak.

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