Belongg is putting together the ‘Inclusive Schools Festival’ on July 16 and 17 with the goal of curating important conversations focused on creating inclusive school environments for students who typically face prejudice and bullying based on their gender, sexual orientation, disability and other identity markers.
The festival will feature prominent educational leaders, thinkers, parents, and students who have engaged on these topics and will bring panel discussions, interviews, film screenings, and cultural events. You can register as a participant here.
This poem is one of the winning entries written by students who participated in the fest.
A Faustian bargain was made,
underneath roundtables
a game was played.
The King of Fools
dealt our hands,
built this house of cards
where he sang, he danced.
But now the wind’s blowing,
blowing again.
Time was just
one of his slaves to kill
at councils and in palaces,
underneath which
we all stood silent, still
defending him with our defeat–
for, after all, we were beneath.
We live and relive
the ravages, the mistakes
as seconds and minutes dilate.
Now clocks struck eternity,
we’re stuck in a loop of errors.
Oh, end of certainty
inventions,
and new discoveries,
but no rhyme or reason
just illogicality.
Science for wars,
wars for peace,
peace for calamity.
Can’t believe our reality–
is this our reality?
We hide and, he seeks.
Eyes on us,
but we can’t see.
In realpolitik,
who’s the real enemy?
Now,
lock me up,
set me free.
Oh, with missiles
you set me free,
and changed my name
to save the guilty.
I’ll think I’ll be alright
but I wish that my son could see
that out here,
there aren’t any borders–
only the wind that blows and whispers to trees.
We could fly,
fly paper planes,
race the moon through terrains
and dream a hundred dreams.
Now that I am up here
the order then seems uncanny.
Thus today I conclude,
Reductio ad absurdum–
your truth is a fallacy
Reductio ad absurdum–
his truth is a fallacy.
Featured image credit: Carlos Aguilar/Pixabay