Life

Imagine being born before outside to sun shining onto emerald grass of the country’s endless valleys

And birds flying high to faraway trees just to feed their babies

As Michael looked into the distance and accommodated his focus, he saw this bigger picture.

His obsession to care for others and ensure their happiness was initialised

For the world could only progress if this nature was not criticised

He didn’t understand his parents dying in a car accident after his birth

He didn’t understand being taken to the city, away from his earth

He didn’t understand growing up in foster homes with parents sexually abusing him in one of those homes

All he understood, was that he had to make them happy.

Fast forward to high school, a girl called Jasmine had met our teenage Michael

She was as beautiful as they could be, a modern-day Aphrodite for those of you that know Greek mythology

He helped her out in any way he could, from homework to bullies, you could say he was in love with her

Favours were required for the latter, and in Michael’s eyes that didn’t really matter

But before you know it Michael trapped himself in a gang… kicked out of college, picked up the slang

Had a talent for pick-pocketing but they wanted to pick up his rank

After roughing up one dealer, they handed Little Mike the shank

“Go on cuz, tell him wagwaarn,” but hurting another is something Michael can’t

“Nah, you do your job and I’ll do mine, now get the fuck out of the way so I can get on with my grind”

Fast forward to getting a mundane desk job with the few qualifications he got

His mind numb from the life of crime he put behind yet numb until the office’s closing time

Michael’s days ending the same way they started: clickbait articles about how a Kardashian farted

And soon would be the day that Michael stumbled upon internet porn

Watching men give pleasure to women in a way he didn’t evoke a desire to say to himself one early morn’

“I wanna do this, I want to please others like this.”

Who knew prostitution would be the career path Michael then chose to live?

Earning enough to survive but selling his body to pleasure women was always more important in his eyes

Eventually, the warmth he wanted to provide was consumed by the growing cold his heart couldn’t disguise

Seeing to one client in a warehouse full of addicts and looking around him before he reached her climaxes

Women and children throwing their lives away with whatever they poisoned themselves with every day

Seeing an overdosed woman all marked and feeble, With a baby in her arms screaming

“Mama please give me more attention than you do with the needle!”

Lost in the world he’d brought himself up in, Michael got dressed and ran out, overwhelmed from within

Tears streaming down his face, he found himself on the Tower Bridge nearby

One step forward into the River Thames and Michael will die.

Shouting and contemplating everything up until that point

What were the chances that his mind would clear at the sound of a voice…

A voice pleading for him to get down from behind him, could it have been the girl that he once knew as Jasmine?

Michael still wouldn’t answer, crying deeper into his abyss. The voice asked, “Why are you doing this?”

With Michael, able to look up to the night’s sky, to say: “I’m a bird, and all I’ve wanted to do is just fly.”