Walls on both sides, where the lines get defined and you’re taught to decide what is yours and defend it as truth you were given Middle was mentioned, but rarely was lived, so the space in between never formed as a place you were meant to be in Left or the right, you’re assigned to a side, where identity ties to the ground that you stand on and call it your vision Truth in between, but it’s lost in the noise of a system that splits what it speaks from the way that it’s actually living Grew in a valley where walls were established before I could question the ground that I stood on or how I was taught to decide Told there was balance, a middle to hold, but the way that it moved in the people around me was different than what they described They spoke about unity, phrased it in rhythm but lived in a pattern that quietly split it No one would say it, but everyone felt it the pressure of where you were placed in the system You’re told not to measure, but watch how they move you see how they sort it in subtlety too Not loud, not forced, just learned over time till it settles as something you don’t even choose By the time that you notice the shape of the frame you’ve already learned how to stand in your place And calling it truth doesn’t make it aligned if the way that it’s lived doesn’t match what it claims They spoke of the middle but stood on the sides Said truth was between us but lived in divide If truth was there why didn’t we stay If love was equal why did we weigh If none above and none beneath Why build the walls and call it peace Conditioned in coded comparisons, carried in cadence and carved into conduct, the contrast was constant, constructed as common and quietly counted as conscience Placed in positions where posture was proof of your placement, the pressure to perform in the presence of people who practiced perception as ranking was constant Told we were equal, but edges were evident, every expression was measured and mirrored in metrics that made it apparent the message was bent You’re taught not to judge, but the judgment was layered in language, in looks, in the limits assigned to the lives that were lived in the presence of them Subtle but sharp in the shaping of status, the stance that you carried was quietly cataloged, compared and compressed into categories crafted as fact So you learned how to lean into lanes that were laid out before you could question the structure or step in the space where the middle was actually at I didn’t reject it, I recognized rupture the break in the balance, the shift in the structure So I moved through the middle they mentioned but missed and found that the space wasn’t empty… it functioned Walls on both sides, where the lines get defined and you’re taught to decide what is yours and defend it as truth you were given Middle was mentioned, but rarely was lived, so the space in between never formed as a place you were meant to be in Left or the right, you’re assigned to a side, where identity ties to the ground that you stand on and call it your vision Truth in between, but it’s lost in the noise of a system that splits what it speaks from the way that it’s actually living They said it was there but nobody lived it They taught it in word but never in rhythm So I didn’t choose what they told me to hold I moved where it worked and it started to show Walls on both sides, where the lines get defined… Middle was taught, but it stayed undefined… Truth in between starts to live when you move… Not choosing a side… but refusing the divide…
