Analysis of Choose

Zoë Schippers 2003 (Mowbray hospital)



Choose
By Zoë Schippers

Lighter skin.
Less shut eye.
More time to think
And less time to fathom
Who could have known? if it were not metaphorically written in the stars.
Or if it were not its true self when it was already amongst us
Slowly making its way through the systems of those who were not strong enough to counterattack its supremacy.
Was it us? Was it our unappreciative nature as human beings? Was that the cause?
Who knew numbers held so much weight, and that it had the ability to supress something that was living?
Who knew it had the ability to supress...
us
 I mean an abstract that was said not to mean anything without contentment?
But you see, these numbers, this abstract, it did not determine the worth of an inanimate object, no.
This abstract, it determined whether you lived, or you died, whether you will in fact get to see all that fuss about the light at the end of this so called “tunnel”
Some say instead of asking ourselves what was the cause we should ask, what was the drive?
So that we could step out of a routine we assumed we were placed here to follow, so that we learn to value ourselves and those that surround us?
We can all choose to see it the way we want , for self-love, for personal growth, for punishment, for lighter skin, for less shut eye, for more time to think or for less time to fathom, but this…
where we find ourselves now, is amid a two-way street, where if you turn to your right you will see a road that leads to healing
and if you turn to your left you will see one that leads to subjugation.
Now, choose.


Scheme AX BXXXXCXXDACXXXXCXDBA
Poetic Form
Metre 1 1110 101 111 1111 011110 11111101010010001 11101111111010011 101011101011101101110010100 1111110110110101101 1110111101110010011101110 11110010011 1 111011111111001010 11111010111101001110100101 101101010111111011011111110101101111110 110111000111011111101 111111100110110111101111110001011011 111111101111111100111001101111111111111111011 1110011101011111111111110111110 011111111111111 11
Characters 1,575
Words 313
Sentences 16
Stanzas 2
Stanza Lengths 2, 20
Lines Amount 22
Letters per line (avg) 56
Words per line (avg) 14
Letters per stanza (avg) 611
Words per stanza (avg) 149

About this poem

I wrote this poem in the midst of the covid-19 pandemic. Our country had just gone under lock down (I reside in South Africa) and I decided to take some time to write a poem expressing how the pandemic made me feel and how it may have affected everyone else as well. I also thought about including the fact that it should give us time to reflect and make a decision regarding how we'd choose to see this profound experience.

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Written on May 17, 2020

Submitted by zoeschippers213 on May 19, 2023

1:33 min read
14

Zoë Schippers

I am currently a student at the University of the Western Cape in South Africa, I am studying to obtain a degree to become a chartered accountant and I am 19 years of age more…

All Zoë Schippers poems | Zoë Schippers Books

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