Wanderlust Tragedy | Teen Ink

Wanderlust Tragedy MAG

July 10, 2014
By Christophermus BRONZE, Chatsworth, California
Christophermus BRONZE, Chatsworth, California
4 articles 3 photos 0 comments

Favorite Quote:
"Sweg."


There lives a boy beyond the edge of fantasy
Who taps and whacks, sleeps and snores
Who shows all the symptoms of that
dreaming disease
But can't get cured like those before

They say he's infected with gleaming eyes
And possessed by the mercury of free spirit
Coughs up ideas and spits out ideals
Due to a mental wanderlust too vivid

Indoctrination proved too useless
And calculated injections benign
Nothing practically potent worked
And neither did the passage of time

They'd thought about a lethal cleansing
A desperate self-procured suicide
All to save this one single boy
Who lived so alone on the wrong side

The boy's hands were bound gradually
As life drained into black or white
His sapphire tears bled the blues
As his death was scheduled that night

Black was darker than usual
In his house of stale hue
They stood there dumbfounded
As red blood seeped right through

For the first time, they saw color
But for the eighth time, they saw blind
His parents still cried gray tears
For they had failed to change their mind


The author's comments:
The speaker has been diagnosed with explorative spirit and colorful imagination, but misunderstood by a society of hard logic and parents who insist a more tempered lifestyle, is forced to commit a self cleansing. Drained of color and idea, the speaker kills his real self for his parents, who remain colorblind to what they have done.

This piece, to some extent, reflects my own life. The demand for teens to follow science majors like medicine and engineering is no doubt tradition in the Asian community, and at many times in my life, I felt banned from what I truly loved to do. My efforts were mocked as fruitless, and for the longest time, I believed my parents and stuck to their schedule.

I've, however, come to terms with the situation, and now have resumed writing with a rediscovered passion.

Similar Articles

JOIN THE DISCUSSION

This article has 2 comments.


on Jul. 18 2014 at 12:04 am
TheDolphin ELITE, Iloilo, Other
210 articles 11 photos 50 comments
"Black was darker than usual"................................This is so amazing playing simple words!

on Jul. 17 2014 at 11:04 pm
the-unrehearsed GOLD, Calgary, Other
18 articles 2 photos 34 comments

Favorite Quote:
All the world's a stage and most of us are desperately unrehearsed.

"...possessed by the mercury of free spirit." My experience closely parallels yours, and I only came to terms recently with the truth that, no, I don't want to be what my parents wish I would be. I think many artists struggle with familial oppression in communities of similar backgrounds, and this poem made me cry. It hits home and I'm glad you never gave up on writing. Thank you.