DIDACTIC: "FROM SELF TO SELF" BY MUHAMMAD MERCURIAL

What value have I given to myself

in order to live the life I once whispered to the stars?

How do I want to make a change

if my self is so interested in becoming

something shaped by other selves,

rather than building

what my own self will one day

stand before and be proud of?

I ask the sky for rain,

yet forget I am the soil

that must be broken, watered, and patient.

Nobody truly carries my becoming

the way I do.

Because every other self

is busy guarding their own flame.

And while other selves focus on themselves,

we pour our strength

into gardens that are not ours,

watching other trees rise

while our roots remain shallow.

The truth is this

the best way to live life

is to live for self

in a way that influences other selves,

not by imitation

but by example.

We grow other selves tall,

stand beneath the shade of their success,

and mistake that shade for shelter,

not knowing it can become a cage.

Because the totality of our lives

will always answer

to the choices our own selves make.

So I ask myself again,

what will you build today

that tomorrow your children

will point to with pride,

standing whole,

outside borrowed identities,

outside co selves,

outside fear?

Will you be the river

that carves its own path,

or the leaf

that waits for every wind

to decide its direction?

From self that hesitates

to self that chooses.

From self that follows echoes

to self that becomes a voice.

From self to self,

this is not selfishness.

This is alignment.

Because even the sun

must burn as itself

before it can light the world.

From self to self,

I choose to become

what my own soul

will be proud to call home.

© MUHAMMAD MERCURIAL 

- Nigeria