(in) Justice! Poem by Michelle Dragonfly

They told me to be fair.
They told me life wasn't fair.
I think, if life isn't fair, why should I be fair?
But what is fairness, really?
Equality?
Justice?
Honesty?

Or maybe, not fair at all,
But a festival of sorts, a carnival.
The county fair.
The state fair.

Or possibly a different kind of fair - a fare?
Money you must pay.
Because it seems to me
That fare describes life perfectly.
A price you must pay to get the reward:
A perfect utopia,
An escape from this dystopia,
The chaos that we call life.

They change the meanings of the words
Just to hide their lies.
We aren't permitted
To know the truth.
The truth hurts, they say.
But how would they know?
The truth has been so distorted by time that there is no longer
Any truth.

Where are all the things they promised me?
Where are my
‘Inalienable Rights' I was promised
By my forefathers?
Life?
Liberty?
And the Pursuit of Happiness?


Well, I'm not happy.
I'm not free to find my happiness,
To pursue the things that make me happy.

And Liberty - hah!
Look it up.
Liberty means the state of being free.
Not constrained.
By definition, Liberty is freedom!
Self-rule!
Independence!
Where is my freedom?
My self-rule?
My independence?
I am raised to be dependent!
Dependent on family,
Friends,
Everything that isn't there.
Not now.
Not anymore.

And life.
But this is true, you say.
I am alive.
I have to be, to be writing this.
I have life!
No.
This isn't life.
This isn't living.
Secrets?
Hiding?
Obeying anyone who gives me a command?
Pretending it doesn't matter?
Pretending I don't hurt?
Say what you will.
That isn't living.
But that is me.

My basic rights.
Natural Rights.
Where are they?
I can't find them anywhere.
I don't know where they are.
So what happened?
Am I the only exception to the rule?
Am I as alone as I always think I am?

I don't understand the logic of the world.
They tell you life isn't fair.
But they expect me to be fair.
But fair means justice.
How am I supposed to be fair when my life is full of injustice?
It makes no sense to me!
How can the world be so cruel?

There are courts for these things!
There are judges!
Why aren't the judges judging?
Why is there so much injustice?
Injustice, I tell you!
That's all the world is now.
Injustice.
Unfairness.
Constraints.

Injustice reigns on high.