• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Prose of a Con

Poetry and Prose by Russell Wardlow

  • Home
  • About
  • Prose
    • Culture
    • Inside
    • Love
    • Mercy
    • Spirit
    • Trauma
  • Listen
  • News
  • Connect
  • Support

Existential Namesake

February 17, 2021 by Russell Wardlow Leave a Comment

looking at you
is akin to seeing the unseen
I can only see your name
but your name is like a dream
manifesting as a theme
causing casualness to evolve into supreme
its hard to explain what I mean
when all I’ve attained was a dream
unchained that changed everything
being more than a thing that we think
or a fiend on the brink
peering inside of a cup or a sink
pondering if I’ll pour or if I’ll sink
if I’ll expand or if I’ll shrink
if I’ll force or if I’ll free
inside of my days where I stray or I lean
deciphering when to pray or when to glean
to be a ray or a beam
or how to display more than my genes
because I’m more than what’s seen
and the more that I see
dwarfs every corner of sea
building a forest of ‘we’
and given all that’s between
like organs and an assortment of needs
I can only morph into peace
despite the distortion of ease
inside of life’s tortures and pleas
entropy forcing an order policed-
by fear and domineering torrents that cease
the moments I envision the purpose of being born, while
expanding over my feet
looking into the vast infinite,
courageously calling and speaking your name
with only two choices
either become, or to be
and if you could become a bird again
would you fly or would you flee?
either way, I’d revel in your power and choice
and from afar or up-close,
I’d still marvel your wings
and your namesake would be my wish-
my wish to be free

Filed Under: Love

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Prose of a Con

Prose of a Con is a collection of Russell Wardlow’s prose and poetry written entirely behind bars. Through writings on family, spirituality, freedom, love, justice, redemption, and vulnerability, Russell seeks to show the humanity and hope of individuals like himself who are incarcerated.

Read More

  • Existential Namesake February 17, 2021
  • Unplanned Destiny February 14, 2021
  • Harambee February 6, 2021
  • Wiseman said, ‘Things’ February 6, 2021
  • Depth Perception February 5, 2021

Themes

  • Culture
  • Inside
  • Love
  • Mercy
  • Spirit
  • Trauma

Footer

Prose of a Con

Prose of a Con is sponsored by giveabeat.org

  • Instagram

Navigation

  • Home
  • About
  • Prose
  • Listen
  • News
  • Connect
  • Support

Themes

  • Culture
  • Inside
  • Love
  • Mercy
  • Spirit
  • Trauma

Prose of a Con © 2021 · web design by Studio Lyko