When they jail you
You wear prison clothes
You eat according to their schedule
You sleep according to their schedule
You think according to their schedule
You lose all agency.
In hospitals
They dress you in a hospital-gown
You eat according to their schedule
The bright lights make sure
You don’t sleep at all
You are ill or well
Not according to what you feel
But according to what their tests tell you
You are treated as if
Your brain doesn’t function
You lose all agency.
In school
You wear a uniform
The time-table is king
And the bells are its page-boys
You have learnt things (or not)
Not according to how you feel
But according to what their tests tell you
You are treated as if
Your brain is empty
And needs to be filled
You lose all agency.
At work
There is a dress code
Some things are done
Some things are not done
You do what your boss tells you
He does what his boss tells him
He does what his boss tells him
You lose all agency.
Every institution does its best
To steal
Your agency from you.
The Nation State
The mother of all institutions
I bow down to thee:
What choice do I have?
This poem first appeared on Sunder and Sonati’s blog, Anhad Ka Baaja. Read the original here.
Sunder and Sonati have been living and growing a forest on a small piece of land in Thekambattu in rural Tamil Nadu for the last 20 years. You can read their blogs here and here.
Featured image credit: Pariplab Chakraborty