Ridiculing
Is the first part
Of their strategy.
Their remarks
Like barbed arrows
Will target
The very core
Of your being.
But you must steel yourself
Against such hurts.
When you manage to keep calm
Not respond to any provocation
They’ll turn hostile
Go to any length
Just to see you collapse
Like a wing-wounded bird.
But you must carry on,
Regardless.
As the knowledge
You acquire peu à peu
Under constant threat
Slowly crystallizes
Into wisdom pure,
It suddenly dawns on them
That it’s beyond them
To delink you
From your aspirations.
And they accept you then
Reluctantly though.
But you stop not knowing
The more you advance
The farther they retreat.