One's Androgynous Shadow

Our species spend a lifetime trying to know itself, but often through societal ignorance, Man’s natural identity remains hidden in shadow. (Image by Pol Ubeda)

One’s Androgynous Shadow
                       by Odin Roark

If only…

If only we thought more kindly,
Allowed the warrior to be daring,
The maternal to appear diffident,
The endowed virtue as oneness.

For where is it said
That man is only this,
Woman only that?

Did Nature evolve gendered life for separation,
Or as a collective to function in harmony?

To be physically male or female
Conflicts not DNA’s sensitive norms,
For to know oneself is to understand biological reality,
Its reward often kept in shadows of self-acknowledgement enjoyed,
Yet seldom shared.

Perhaps one day,
More than a few of us
Will come of age,
Rise above limiting mirrors,
Embrace innate honesty,
And reveal the essence of a sword’s artistry
Is but to defend life’s nurturing instinct.

To discover such definition,
The dignity and solemn truth of one’s androgynous shadow,
Is to set free the all-loving child held captive within,
To finally realize what it is to mature.
 
If only.

  

Reviews

[Glen Yumang Manese]

The title itself speaks much without even reading a word...yet the insight you put down on paper with these words...gives a reader a step back and ask the questions for which...why are we here and where do we go from here...most take life as a 9 to 5...and sleep and do again...yet the whole time they are here...do they know was is...or do they just follow a program...and go with the flow...