A Spectrum of Self: The Crisis Continues

Scanning my mind
With a focused lens
Mining for answers
My cart comes up empty again

How do I feel?
not what, but how?
I wish I knew
how my ethic congealed

Am I really just
a slave to communal notions
rocked to and fro by wanton passion
like a ship on the ocean?

Or am I an anchor
steadfast unto myself
A principled partner
a maker of cohesion?

With answers elusive
I dig for conclusions
without identity
adrift in a sea of confusion

Without knowing
if my ethic is outside or inside
there is no way of knowing
Whose wishes to abide

And still I try