Jeremy C Kester

a poem

Bright sun and cold air
It slows the urge for Spring
Hardening my resolve
This shit needs done
In the now
My soul cries to break
This mold I create stops it
Can I shatter it
And live with bold purpose
Sure, others will also try
As we always place clay on others
Trying to morph them into our ideas
Turning them into ugly things
As we toss them into kilns
An attempt to harden
While burning them away
But my soul is fire and flame
I’ve tried to let others put it out
Though it continues to burn
Brighter, hotter, more violent
Consuming my patience
Even as I try to avert eyes
Avoid these things
For meager helpings of uselessness
These rewards people give
If you let them mold you
Shape you in the image they like
Useless and mindless
I would become only shell
If they had their way
Even as they show
They are empty inside as well
Allowed others to build them
Their cores dissolved and gone
Hardened shells of discontent
Happy if only to make others like them
I do not wish to comply
These clay and ceramic pieces ill fitting
Showing a lie
One I no longer can tolerate

Photo and words copyright © 2026 by Jeremy C Kester – all rights reserved.
Note: this is also cross-posted to Poetically Unlicensed on Substack.

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