In our consumerist society, we are encouraged to indulge not only our basic needs but also our materialistic desires. And if we can’t, then that could mean we might have not imbibed the hustle culture well enough.

Or simply, we aren’t good or successful enough.

And this led me to create this poem:

Vagabond

I look as if I have none of what you have
You see me wandering, looking starved
But I easily get what you tediously work for
I get to eat and drink with less to no intense labor

I look as if I’ve grown tired and weary
Of not having my own roof to sleep and stay
But I can easily get to anywhere I want to
Not pulled back by what I’ll leave behind when I go

I look as if I’m such in a pitiful state
Lowly social status and nothing under my belt
But I easily go around stripped of a proud ego
What people think of me, I can just forgo

I look as if my life has been a waste
What this world can offer, I can only gaze
But I’m easily grounded with what really matters a lot
That is to be in the moment and use freely the time I have

The people who have far less than what we have and can pander to, could it be that they are actually happier than us?