As Existential Imperative

The answer compels me to draw breath

Photo by Marek Piwnicki

I am nothing.
I am becoming.

I am one. I am growing.

I am family; I am black sheep.

I am pigment, I am melanin,
I am a color, I am the spectrum.

I am nucleus, I am covalent,
I am compound, I am element.

I am bonded, I am radical;
I am culture, I am contrarian;
I am society, I am outcast.

I am multitudes, and yes,
I am oh so very lonely.

I seek to convey
all the rawness of this loneliness,
despair, and disrepair,

and yet another voice from within
demands that the surface glimmers,
reflecting even upon retrospect,

and the messages buffed near the edges
must give it all some essence of luster
before passing muster until

the whole thing twists, mutating
into some unrecognizable
folly of platitudes,

exuding little of the affirmations
birthed from pinpoints both
familiar and unknowable

before morphing into
just another one of many
screams for help,

as fated to go unanswered
as all of the rest,

and as I exhaust myself wondering
why do I even bother trying,
the answer compels me
to inhale and exhale

simply because I am
and therefore, I must.

© BJ Dawson — 2026

De La Soul - Stakes Is High (Official Music Video) [HD]

---

Barry’s new chapbook, jagged remnants of you, is available for global distribution, and can be purchased on Amazon, on Lulu in paperback and eBook, and soon, wherever books are sold.

Tips are always welcome.

---