Crushing Pestle Poem by Lonnie Hicks

I take my habits outside
and crush them in the pestle
because they constrain my life
even as I yearn to move beyond them.

I set aflame all my cultural presuppositions
because they prevent me from seeing.

I take each and every thought which in the past
seemed evident
and like Einstein
ask why do I accept these ideas as true?

I am in pursuit of my own genius
and its antecedents.

But my pestle strategy
is seen by all as rebellious
and I am crushed low soon
by church and state.

But visions never die
and in the dead of night
they return
asking why
tossing and turning
in my mind.