• 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

The Wisdom, Before the Fool

July 1, 2021 by Russell Wardlow Leave a Comment

to know what you are
you must see something alike
to know who you are
you must see something alike,
that acts unalike

and so I told my celly
I know I’m a person
because there are many others characterized the same as I
people
making me a part of a species

I know what I like
by experiencing the things I do not like
to know who you are
you must experience who you are not
something and someone in opposition
to your convention or position

therefore, how I know I’m going out of my way
is because you never go out of yours
and normally I wouldn’t allow
who someone is,
to dictate who I am

but when I am being who I am-
trying to become,
you make me feel like
you think that it may be something
which it is not

and you seem too used to this thing
you may think that it is
therefore, to stop any further confusion
ima be who I need to be
in relation to you and me

no longer shall I go out of my way
in my way, Way must stay
from here on

therefore at times one must be
whom one is not
to protect that which one truly is

and so this is the battle
to end the impending uncivil war of
wars, worlds, and words

because this is a nature
I’m all too familiar with
as you are also
though it illustrates the first word
of my last name

‘oh word?’
yea, word
but it’s all one
now that we made a sentence

Filed Under: Culture, Inside, Spirit

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Your email address will not be published.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

  • Whose Mind is it Anyway June 30, 2022
  • Objects June 30, 2022
  • Same Thang, Different Name June 30, 2022
  • Optical Ill-lusions June 30, 2022
  • Hollow Symbols June 30, 2022

Themes

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

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
  • Uncategorized

Prose of a Con © 2023 · web design by Studio Lyko