You bred me

As a child of imagination and intellect.

You fed me half-baked expectations

Slathered in cookie-cutter dreams.

Malnourished by your monotonous instruction,

I sniffed out the world for myself,

Tussled in the mud,

Gleaned every morsel of genuine experience.

As I grew,

So did my boundaries—

Your “high achiever” now attacks the System,

Plotting to decapitate its monstrous head

And strip it of insidious venom,

Brandishing the sword you provided.

I will slay the dragon

That you did not—

I will conquer your generation

Even if history repeats

And the future swallows itself.

Your ladders don’t reach,

Your books don’t teach,

Your cars don’t travel,

Your ears don’t listen.

I dare you to disregard the volatile fluids

Pumped by my heart—

You have constructed me,

But I am not yours.