Blind obedience will not do
In the act of blind obedience
Do not be walked off the edge
For it is not disobedience
To watch your step
Just the simple formulation
Of a life of our own
Free to roam and reminisce
On those silly questions…
Only fools do not ask
The past reaches forward
In a soft whisper to awaken
You have been here before
Best to open your eyes now
-Camille Delaquise
This poem appears in Behind the Facade, Camille’s debut contemporary poetry collection. Blind obedience will not do speaks to the moral necessity of independent thought — insisting that awareness, questioning and historical memory are essential safeguards against surrendering the self.