My Voice

A Disney princess gave up her voice

Thinking if she did, she’d have the choice

To be happy, live on land, and find true love,

But the fact of the matter is

She was wrong.

She gave up a piece of herself,

Her method of expressing how she really felt.

Maybe if she knew how to speak with signs,

She wouldn’t have been

So quiet.

To give up my voice, I’d give up my identity.

Without my identity, I’d be a soulless entity,

An empty bag of bones with no real opinions.

I wouldn’t be me, I’d be

No one.

With my voice, I can speak. I digress, I debate.

I challenge and argue and keep matters straight.

If my throat caved in, I’d learn to speak with my hands

Because being silent, to me, is

Being dead.

My voice is my thoughts, my feelings, my words.

Without it, my morals and opinions go unheard.

Everyone has a voice, though some choose not to use it.

And that, in my eyes, is expressionless

Suicide.

All things considered, I’d rather be poor, hungry, and cold

Than be rich and well-fed with no way to let the world be told

How I feel, what I think, what I believe, with whom I side.

If you take my voice, you take me, and I’ll tell you, I won’t

Stand for that.