Question Me (poetry)

I have walked countless miles
And I have seen many faces, places, events, and things

I have brushed shoulders with strangers
Who wore their life stories on their sleeves
And their faces
But I was too distracted by the color of their eyes
Or their fabulous hairstyles to notice,

That
They were saying to the world
As they just walked on by…
DO YOU SEE ME?

They were displaying the story of their lives
For all the world to see,
In the way that they limped through life
Or the way that they expressed a lazy smile
If they smiled at all.

Or the way they pulled their shoulders inward
Or how they were so careful not to touch
Or brush up against those they walked amongst.

And sometimes it was that distant stare
Showing that they were self-consumed and pre-occupied.

Through the millions of encounters
Of this lifetime
I missed it,
Misinterpreted, failed to receive
The communication that the strangers
Of which I am thee and they are me.
That I walked side by side with each day
Had something to say.

They spoke in their very being of their hurt and fears,
Their insignificance it seemed
And in the way, they hurried from one place to the next,
Was their scream.
That life had been unfair and that no one seemed to care
And how they were at wit’s end
And that desperation and hopelessness were setting in.

And in their abrasiveness or to the other extreme their overfriendliness
They were reaching out in a whisper
That they were alone or amongst many yet still lonely, and suspended
As they struggled to find their ground.
And their scattered energies made life appear to be just a dream.

I was never able to come to their rescue
And maybe it was not my task to do
But still, the chance was never mine to entertain
Because I missed what they truly wanted to say
That was right in front of me.

And as the world turns,
life goes on and my story continues
Yet of only a mere fraction thereof do I remember.

I have gone to universities
For them to teach me what I already know
And did not need,
And I paid them to do so.

All because there is an inkling
That there is something more Indeed.
And in truth, I am sensing knowledge that is already there,
Lingering in the reservoirs of my periphery
In records just waiting for me to tap into and access.
Experiences and knowledge of things both original and shared from this lifetime
And many lives before,

I have learned more than what I remember
I have taken in through my eyes
A million things that did not register consciously

But got lost in translation
Because mentally I could not keep up with all that my eyes took in
Of the rapid rate at which I felt things
Heard noises that went unnoticed
That got processed and pushed deep into the subconscious of my mind
Because a part of me deemed these things unimportant,
So the experiences got logged in file 13
Somewhere in the backroom of me
Yet all these things are still there
Lying dormant
And about them, I have a knowing
An experience with.

So Ask me, question me, about many things
And allow us both to be surprised
At the answers that were long ago forgotten but once again shall manifest.
Triggered by the questions you request.

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