Ana Beatriz Ribeiro wrote this poem recently about personal identity and conformity, something that is talked about in inner circles for we are seeing trends that are becoming problems in our society. It has to do with social media. It has to do with politics. It has to do with the uncertainties that we are facing and the future that is as cloudy and blurry as it was 90 years ago. It has to do with finding onesself without being singled out. Here’s a look at her work:
My values have changed
but I still find myself here
comparing myself to others,
.
ruminating and wasting
energy thinking of lives
seen only through a half-
cracked window and they
.
tell us it all looks better
from the outside but then
they turn around and put
on a new mask every time.
.
What if I got rid of this screen?
If I embraced the comfort of
feeling the pavement against
my feet and of hearing
.
the humming of engines and
the birds and the breeze?
Could I also go on oblivious
to the latest status update
.
engineered to record our every
move in exchange for a hit
of dopamine never enough
to validate the self we’ve
.
sacrificed to the tech gods,
to the sparkly idols on stage,
to the idea we’re never enough
without an ideal we can’t attain?
.
They tell us to follow our
passion and not to make
ourselves small especially
when we’ve been oppressed,
.
to grab the opportunities
made finally available to us
by trailblazers who cared
but the goalpost keeps being
.
moved further away and
this hard drive we call our
planet is running out of
space and overheating when
.
we all accumulate and
the disrupters are only held up
as such when they uphold
the system behind the frame.
.
What if I finally unplugged?
Would I spend the rest of
my days floundering in
a dark night of the soul?
.
Forever reaching for my phone
while my lost potential’s mourned:
I could have been so much
if only I had conformed.
THE FLENSBURG FILES 