Ronin

Cowards in the cages
looking outward at the freedom
through the bars believe
it’s nothing but a fairy tale
we tell ourselves
to help us fall asleep.
Printing lists of all the things
we have to pray to keep
like cars with bright blue
headlights and a varnish
over everything that shines.
They think there is value
in how crowded they can
keep themselves.
As if the quantity of something
is the only way to conjure any value.
They are wrong.
It is possible to make something
out of nothing even just by accident.
To concentrate some greatness
into a minuscule receptacle of choice.
Sometimes the thunderous can be cut down
by the smallest voice lost somewhere
in this mass we’re all caught up in.
Look out for what you can carry with you,
and always value what they cannot take away.
Don’t let them pry the nails loose from another day,
but hold on to what you know is calling out to you.
A sand castle is eaten by the tide built over hours
at the high point of the day, and the only thing
that walks away, is a hermit crab that carries
all it needs with just the strength that it was given
by the ocean. It looks up at you with eyes
like outer space almost daring you to crush it,
but you don’t, you’re too afraid to even try.