Drowning in Society

As a child you swim.

Contently.

Naiively.

Ignorant of the evils lying below.

Waiting.

Watching.

As you grow,

there's a weight added to your ankle,

every year you turn older.

Making it harder to swim.

Harder to breathe.

You begin to notice

the evils within.

You get dragged

deeper and deeper until you start to drown

in the pool of lies and desperation.

                      You begin to notice

               all the hatred and discrimination 

                   crawling out of the mouths

                       of brothers and sisters,

                          mothers and fathers,

                             friends and foes,

                                     you.

You realize that you are the reason

you are drowning.

You are contributing to the evils of society.

You could have freed yourself

and others 

from those weights,

from those chains.

   but you chose not to

       you chose to drown.