An original poetry piece I made awhile back for my debate and speech team. However I still never have had the opportunity to preform it, hopefully that day will come eventually. The majority of this, if not all of it, was just a tangent I went on one day when I was feeling really angry at the world and society and just about everything in general.



When I was seven years old a young girl walked up to me and said in a voice I still remember to this day
“You are the biggest freak here, because you have one leg.”
It was the first time something like that had happened to me, I truly wasn’t sure how to react.
I remember the mischievous grin on her face as my eyes watered and I ran to get an adult
Who went to the girl and told her in an uninterested voice
“Be nice”
And then walked away.

That was 8 years ago now, and although I’ve grown to accept myself for whom I am
The idea sticks
Life was worse back then; the world seemed like a prison
With prisoners stuck in cells and the guards keeping us in our places.
We were all stuck in our cages for the same reason but under different names
Ugly, fat, dumb, freak
We were outcasts.

And the idea sticks
Because as the guards went home each night to see their family and friends
We were still stuck in our cells
Unable to talk to anyone about what was truly going on in life.
All we could do was wait there
And anticipate the next time the guards would open the iron doors and beat us down yet again.
And this went on for so long.

It went on for too long.
It took too long for us to realize that we had created our own cages
And that we were the only ones that could craft the key to our freedom.
But the idea sticks.
We still held the title we were given in prison
Seldom was it used verbally but it remains on our record
The word “freak” following behind every step we take.


And as for those who couldn’t find their key
The best life can do is go on.
Silenced and paralyzed by a society they fear
Constantly wondering what can possibly become of them
Growing up in a world that hates them.
That idea sticks,
Sticks with them for whatever amount of time they chose to spend on earth.


As a young girl lays in her bed
After yet another day of torment and mockery
She is relishing in the pain of her new scars.
I often wonder if she ever thinks to ask the question
Is it really self inflicted?


And then continue on with life
Torment, mockery, and all.


Is it too much to think that a world
In which we may have a common respect for our fellow humans
is in fact possible?
Is it too much to think that a world
In which nobody will see their knives stained with their own blood
is in fact possible?


This is no revolutionary concept
Many have fought and died for equality
Many have fought and died for respect
And many more have died
Simply because they did not wish to partake in a world
Where equality is something that needs to be fought over in the first place.

Because society’s guidelines
Are based off stereotypes
And that to be what you say
You need to act the way your told
And in a world like this
Free will becomes an illusion.

It just seems like everyone’s angry
Because we all grow up feeding off of bias sources
So when we encounter someone who thinks differently
We do what all people do naturally
We hate
Because all people are evil

At least that’s what we come to think
At most that’s what makes more hate
People are not naturally evil
People are naturally ignorant
People are naturally fearful
And we all fear the unknown

So we see something isn’t us
Naturally we don’t know what it is
Naturally we are afraid of it
So we need to erase it in order to be safe again.
This is not evil or the devil’s work
This is simply human.

But we cannot stop ourselves from being human
No one has the right to stop us from being what we are
If we wish to make a world of understanding
We cannot simply tell each other not to be afraid
Because fearful is what we are
And nothing can stop us from being afraid.

However we can stop ourselves from being ignorant
Instead of telling children to be brave
Tell them why they don’t need to be brave at all,
Instead of telling them not to be afraid
Tell them why there is no reason to be afraid in the first place,
Because only through destroying ignorance can we put away fear.

But something tells me
Down in the core of my soul
That men and women will still need to fight for equality
That there will always be more hate than love
And that a world without prisons
Will not be an idea too stick.