We are fashioned by circumstance by Manqoba Mtsweni

We are fashioned by circumstance,
Sharpened in every situation into a shape
That’ll allow us to fit into society, even into traditional chains,
Whether it causes your soul to break or your hope to give way to despair.
We are clay for a worldly potter, jars to contain whatever the world pours in.
You may complain, you may resist, but daily the pressure and constant chipping away at your form.
Daily it continues to pour till reluctantly you find yourself content with everything the world puts in.
Unquestioning, non-resistant, following every trend, a soul formed into something other than its true form.
Deformed and misinformed the signs say you’re a soul beyond repair.

But I beg to differ, poetry allows me to infer, the truth drowned in a sea of misinformation.
You are a person with whims and a will of your own.
The days are coming when despair must give way to hope, and we should mend our souls.
Where we fashion ourselves into a shape that allows us to thrive and live freely, out of the shackles of tradition.
You and I may be in a shape not of our own making, holding contents not of our own choosing.
But daily we break out of shape, daily we spill out that which does not please us.

We are not jars of clay, we are not whatever the signs say.
We are people of our own making.
We are the corrigible, people capable of being corrected, characters that can make corrections. We are the very agents of change.

Manqoba is an upcoming poet with a passion for writing and performing poetry. From Emalahleni. Their focus is on creating poetry that aims to empower, encourage, heal, and serve as a point of reflection on personal, social, cultural, and global levels.