what if
as a small child
your compromised behaviour
was not only reinforced
but encouraged?

what if
the school system,
in attempting to modify
those attitudes,
was attacked and ridiculed
by those you loved?

what if then, at age,
the ruling classes
ostracised you
because of your inability
to curb those ways?

what if
crime and allied misconduct
saw you enter juvenile justice
where rehabilitation demands
overturned all you knew
leaving your circumstances in question and,
your mental health lacerated –

what if
dominant culture demands
had so impacted your traditional belief system
that frustration psychology
drove all that you knew?

how would you deal with this?

First published by Friendly Street in ‘New Poets 19’ Anthology
edited by Edie Eicas, 2018