Riddle of Life - Akala, Ayanna Witter-Johnson

Who can read the riddle of life

It’s a tale told by an idiot, still we can’t figure it

Maybe the simplistic things

That is where the wisdom is

Freedom only has meaning if you know what a prison is

All we see is differences, death don’t distinguish ‘em

Flickering flame to the brightest light it extinguish ‘em

Then its gone little spec gone forever

The soil that covers bones decomposes whoever

Whether you’re rich or you’re clever

A buyer or seller could not trade what they made for another day even as a slave

The heathen is made by believers enraged

As a gauge to find a way, to deceive us in wage

From the, screen to the page, to the wall of a cage

I wonder if what we say

Ever really has changed

Because, we ain’t got a clue from whom that we came

But giving it names is one of the ways that we entertain

Deeper and deeper I go searching for something unknown

Wander the road take my soul standing for something I love

Who can read the riddle of life

I have wondered many times if Shakespeare was right

And it signifies nothing

Just that heaven’s bluffing

But the jokes on us cos we discuss all this deeper stuff

Cos it all just eventually, turns into dust

Must we change our disgust for the lust of depravity?

And adjust our (?) cusp of reality

I ain’t sussed enough to give myself clarity

But I do know enough not to trust any charity

Cos the, language of death

Is spoken, by a golden breath

I know that I am golden but I am not hoping to be next

Yes, I do cling to this vanity

And I dip my pen in the ink of insanity

When mind numbing disparity

Passes as normality

The comedy of history is we don’t see it’s a tragedy

Who can read the riddle of life

We ain’t given equipment for recognising the signs

So lines are unclear

Trying to undo tears is near enough impossible

We’re clung to fear

The cost of letting go, is less than we know

But still, it’s way more than we are willing to show

So we cling harder, my mother and my father

As if, they’re the only ones that gave birth to a child

They say, life is a gift but I don’t know if it is

Not because I’m pissed I literally don’t know what it is

Are we spirits from another realm cast down into this world?

Or just animals focused on how we feed ourselves

Heaven or hell what’s the perspective?

A strong desire to return to the source and we call it a death wish

But maybe, they have just settled the riddle

No beginning or end but there’s a life in the middle