Written by Zach Nerpel
Exhausted is the heart forced to bleed.
The cardiovascular system is a thing of wonder. Without initiation, one relatively simple muscle pumps liters of red oil through 60,000 miles of interior veins, arteries, and capillaries. We’ve named these channels “blood vessels” and they circulate without decision.
When the pistons no longer pump and the engine stops beating, one half of the legal criteria for death is met.
As such…
Aimless is the mind forced to wander.
The brain is a thing of wonder. With or without initiation, one complicated organ transmits electrical signals through billions of neurons, their axons, and trillions of synapses. We’ve named these channels “pathways” and they circulate with and without decision.
When the circuits of this computer short out, one can be declared legally dead.
So…
Pardon me if I’m wrong, reader, but you check neither of these boxes.
You’re alive and if keen to bloodlet your metaphorical heart, it may be in your interest to exercise your physically beating heart.
There’s no power in cardiac arrest.
You’re alive and if keen to surge your brain to create thought, it may be in your interest to exercise your mind.
There’s no power in ignorance.
You can feel?
You can think?
Congratulations, you’re human… and so is everyone else. The worst of us. The best of us. Indiscriminately, all.
Even your enemies can walk and talk.
Now that we have gotten that out of the way… the prompt…
Take? Power? Back?
For granted is how we Take… our hearts keeping us alive automatically.
Housed is how we keep our Power… our minds afraid to remind us of where we hid the keys to the doors we locked.
And forth… the idea of Back…
Crushed is the soul forced to endure.
The spirit is a thing of wonder. Only with initiation, one intangible concept of Self makes decisions through immeasurable amounts of choice. We’ve named this channel “life” and it circulates with decision.
When this captain nods off at the helm, they must rely on their crewmates to navigate the ship… if no boxes are to be checked.
So…
Ask this of yourself, reader, how are your crewmates?
Is your heart happy to pump blood to the hand your mind signals to write the thoughts your soul directs?
Are the captain’s orders met with “aye aye” or groans and whispers of mutiny?
Do you harbor enough power of self-control to commandeer the power of another?
Back?
Power?
Take?
Ahoy, matey… them are fightin’ words, an admission of loss, and a declaration of reclamation all at once; an intent to run it back.
As such…
The power struggle, reader.
RRCC 