Who Are You? A poem by Kai Chen 你是谁？（诗/英文）

Who Are You?

你是谁？（诗/英文）陈凯 作

A poem by Kai Chen 4/16/2010

Most say humans are just creatures of their environment.
Most say humans have no choices.
Most say humans should only accept, not create.
Most say human lives have no meaning like an eternal void.

Most say we are only maggots
Worming in the waste of our ancestors in a chamber pot,
With a full belly enjoying a life of no eyes, no mind and no bones.
Most say we are only swine
Waiting to be fed in a cage,
With their fattened bodies to be slaughtered by men.
Most say we are only slaves bond by chains,
Toiling under the orders of the masters
With a certain fate forever in servitude.

Most yearn to paint a prettier chamber pot,
Saying that will brighten the lot of the maggots.
Most plot to weave a warmer cage,
Saying that will improve the swine’s lives.
Most strive to forge a sturdier chain,
Saying that will secure the future of the slaves.

Forbid it, Almighty God:

I want to smash the chamber pot
With its noxious content from others.
I want to swim in the blue water of the ocean
Extend my fins to explore the unknown,
For I am not a maggot but a dolphin.

I want to tear apart the cage
No matter how warm and how comfy it is.
I want to roam the immense plain
Trotting through endless possibilities,
For I am not a swine but a lion.

I want to break the chains from the masters
To unleash the power of my body, my mind and my spirit,
I want to soar above the blue sky
With my wings sailing through the air.
Everything is so clear under my eyes
The entire world is within my embrace,
For I am never a slave,
I am an eagle, I am a free being.

In the directions of human endeavors,
May God give me only two choices with nothing in between:
Liberty and Death.