I Live in a Place

This is a poem I wrote for an AAC assignment... It's far from perfect, but I was attempting to vaguely reflect Ralph Waldo Emerson, or Walt Whitman. My beliefs are of course different from theirs, which I hope that I express in the poem. In particular, I'm addressing the lines "Man is his own Star" and "Our acts, our angels are"; but in a very different way. Anyways, hope you guys enjoy- and please post feedback!

---

I live in a place
Where to be yourself is a crime
If you care to speak out
Beware the undermined
Though it’s not an instant effect
It’s there all the same
You can see the release
In your mind
Like a chain of dominoes
An intake of breath
A gasp or a chuckle
So lightly dismissed
So secretly cruel
You care to speak out
And share your mind
Your thoughts and feelings…

No, don’t.
You can’t without fear
Confessions and truths
Silenced, and queered
You become an oddity
Something rather unusual
Never quite the same
It’s something irreversible
But I am not afraid
To challenge their lives
Unintentional malice
To the vulnerable minds
A certain pain to know
You failed for this time

It cannot be entertained
That we are invincible
Humans were made
An image of what’s real
The truths they wear
Hide certain falsehoods
Innocence made blind
For none are self-righteous
Casting off the masks
Which hide ourselves
Here we are.
This is us.
What we have become.


All right, that's it!

~Firefly~