International Poetry Slam Olomouc - Ondřej Hrabal

First Czech International Poetry Slam - letní kino Hoblina Olomouc
8 June 2016 - Ondřej Hrabal - Czech Republic
Detour Productions, Slam Poetry CZ
Sponsored by the Czech Ministry of Culture
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ONDŘEJ HRABAL
Values
waking up, trying to ostracize thoughts
that make me sleazy
open your eyes!
well, it’s not so easy
especially when you have more beer than fire
in your belly
looking deep into a mirror
-a huge blow to my self-esteem
the image of myself that my dream drew
smashed by one thought
which came out of the blue
but won’t disappear
until the sky is clear once again
unless I don’t leave my room all day
and won’t care about the sky’s color
only stain the paper that should’ve stayed plain
and won’t look horizontally
till the heavens are stellar
anyway, don’t take anything for granted,
even a bad mood
no matter what,
you stay at a place no one has ever stood
wet underwear you’ve made is ok
‘cause it makes you special
to be immature at twenty-eight
you’re tempted to kill people?
it’s alright, feel free to express yourself
torture some animal or anything weaker
do horrorcore rap, just don’t keep it in a safe
you’re special, you little astonishing maniac
let’s cut literally everyone some slack
you know, we might as well rename black to grey
for there’s no need to store needs
nor to keep things out of sight, underneath
the bar for high jumping is so low
you can hardly see the gap under it anymore
it’s like laying on the floor
waiting for someone to raise it up
I guess we can just hope
that some idiots won’t give it a shot
saying stuff like
let’s fight for the one thing we share,
let’s fight for European values!
and what are these in the first place,
may I ask
real traditional European values are hatred towards anything unknown
the need to convince everyone
about one’s own opinion
antisemitism all the way from the very beginning
disrespecting women; and I’m only digging
just below the surface
although I would have to dig much deeper
if I sought justice
when I go out,
I can still feel communism in the air
but unfortunately, I don’t feel any values there
a fake shield can’t protect you, can it?
but it works like a charm if you managed
to make it look realistic.
let’s look forward, ok
but you can’t refuse a Muslim, a feminist or a gay
just because you have a feeling that they
don’t respect the values you’ve postulated yesterday