During my teenage years, I was a hardcore fan of the Robotech Saga. My teen years were trying times for me, in just about every possible way. My life was under the control of the Los Angeles Juvenile Courts, and I was locked up and subjected to endless involuntary chemical abuse like a lab rat. I was robbed of my potential through this process, and by the time I ran away as a 15 year old, I would have to spend the rest of my life reconstructing what I could of my damaged mind.
This poem depicts the role the Robotech Saga played in influencing me to take a stand against this abuse, which I did by running away and facing an entirely different, yet more controllable, set of dangers. Protoculture is the substance everyone was after in the series, and which was used to power the hyper-transformative “robotechnology”.
Protoculture
mysterious and eternal
you shot me among the stars
folded my mind across the unknown
and for the first time
i felt the stainless grip
of chains and shackles
and i began to tear my flesh
bruise my bones
crazed with a wordless desire
snapping chains against their mounts
pain now only a reminder
freedom or death
imagination was reborn
behind my glaze
my soul transformed over and over
a veritech dodging heavy fire
a guardian swooping the foe
a battloid launching wild salvos
somehow i sensed a resonant power
a massive generator of hope
giant invaders sought to capture or destroy
deep in my battle-scarred fortress
and ripping free of my blood-caked bonds
i reeled and stood my ground
