Jeremy C Kester

a poem

Are we free
Trapped with choice
Illusions at best
Products and problems
Solutions to needs
Unneeded necessities
Simply things to consume
To line others’ pockets
Is it choice?
Or coercion?
Tied to happiness
If we buy more
Freedom through gluttony
Could we be free
To choose otherwise?
Or are we trapped
Inside our own trick
Convinced of reality
That is anything but
We chase want
What we are told
Is happiness
To have more and more
This cycle of hedonism
Feeding baseless desire
Polluting mind and body
Soul and Earth alike
But we have a choice, right?
Between product A and B
Only yet a single letter
Designed such to fool
I am a fool
To believe in freedom
In the many ways advertised
False choices disguised
But if instead
We look inside
Maybe I can find it
What it means this life
Reflecting inward
Rather than letting them
Deciding what I see
Looking beyond them
To a higher calling
Where freedom may exist
Maybe I am wrong
But maybe what they want
Is to not even ask
Because the question
Beckons for the truth

Photo and words copyright © 2025 by Jeremy C Kester – all rights reserved.
Note: this is also cross-posted to Poetically Unlicensed on Substack.

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