You are not born with ideology
But you will only die without it
If you don’t live at all

I was born with a nose too small
Glasses dangle there for a little
And eventually
fall off

I guess I thought the same would happen
To ideology glasses 
But I was wrong
Because they are not glasses at all

I don’t know when it happened
if it was
at the age of five
or four
When my eyes were replaced

The world was colourful
and pure
Then things turned to
black, white and grey

There is not much I can do 
So often
I see a trash can
as a plate of food
Because its content 
will agree with me

You are not born with ideology
But you will only die without it
If you don’t live 

It’s ironic I know
being a prisoner 
of my own eyes
But most of the time there is nothing I can do

I then search for different lenses
in conversations and books
So I don’t limit myself
to what my eyes can see
I’ve accepted now
No matter what I do
I can’t ever escape from ideology

[Luísa Tibana, Coimbra, Spring 2021]