Fragments of Frost and Fire - Episode 6 - UNCLOUDED

 The world around me shapes my words and thoughts.

Today, it was the story of a young woman—the valedictorian of an Ottawa high school—being punished for speaking out about the evils of this world. The same education system that taught her to think critically, to speak with conviction, is now trying to silence her.

Unclouded

They say the young don’t see the world

for what it truly is—

but maybe they see it better.

Not yet blinkered by

the cataracts of life:

compromise, comfort,

the slow erosion of outrage

by daily bread

and discounted dreams.

They see with eyes

not fogged by history,

not dimmed by

the weary math

of what will sell,

what will pass,

what won’t rock the boat

too much.

We sit idle in the couch cushions

we’ve moulded to our shape,

not noticing how long

we’ve sunk there,

how the springs gave out

years ago.

But the young rise,

refusing to settle long enough

to shape the world to their laurels,

choosing instead to push against walls,

and break down barriers.

They rise,

and their voices cut through the hush—

sharp, unwavering,

not yet trimmed

to fit inside

what we call acceptable.

A young woman

at a microphone,

naming genocide

in her valedictory breath—

truth ringing louder

than the applause.

They rise,

and the world stirs:

from courtroom steps

to climate marches,

from drowned coasts

to burning hills,

they walk out of our silence

and into the storm.

The next generation

of warriors—

not armed with cynicism,

but clarity—

released like arrows

into a sky

we thought too heavy to pierce.

And we call them

idealists,

as if that were

a sin.

But maybe—

just maybe—

they are the ones

who see clearly,

because they haven’t yet

learned to look away.

 

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