Do not run.
Walk.
Do not yell.
Talk.
These somber expressions
They haunt me
my nights,
to make perfect impressions,
to have the right opinion,
the right clothes, the right smile,
the right prose.
Lying awake
Staring at the ceiling
Their judgments
echo in my head, so I
ignore the feeling
They think I cannot win
Break down the walls
and pick myself up
From seven falls
Should I fight?
Fight this hypocrisy
This madness playing out
before me
How could they choose this route
Don’t they see
They tell me to sit.
to listen.
They dress up,
Yell in front of a congregation.
Do nothing
But sit and criticize our nation
Stop
Don’t do that
Who are you
Be someone else
This is a play
I am not a star
Only an extra, a nobody
On this perfect skin,
I am the scar
I am lucky to be here
In this show
Alive and lucky
Choking for air through the
smoke they blow
I want to run
Back to their arms,
Safe in society
and avoid my notoriety
What’s it worth,
I stand only to
Be shoved back down
And be made a fool,
Nothing but a clown,
My fear tells me stop
or you’ll drown
But instead I fight
and stand one more time,
Just to smile at their disbelief
And rinse off the grime
From listening to lies
And avoiding their eyes
They thought
They were safe in the guise
Enlightened by perfection,
but the truth revealed
only their infection
In that moment
I saw their selfishness,
Their greed,
Their impurity and their need
To cloud the sky in gray
So no man woman or child
Would stray from their shouts
Against our difference
And finally make the inference
That both sides are wrong
In this fight,
Standing in the extreme,
So firm so strong
They don’t see their right
To believe and do,
To unite as one
This is not right nor left,
Nor blue or red,
But instead
Someone who fights for unity,
I see what pride destroyed
our sense of community.
I don’t care what they say,
They can push me seven times,
I’ll stand up eight
And I won’t stop fighting
Until pride has no choice but to fade
And this writing finally makes a change.