Author's Note:
In a time when history is being rewritten, books are being banned, and voices silenced—I wrote this poem to push back. I don’t write for comfort. I write to remember, to call out, to testify. This piece is my reckoning—with the world, with injustice, and with myself.
Refugee in My Own Life
I’m a walking poem,
navigate the world with flair & intensity.
Combine it with swirled empathy,
mix in some fantasy, mind high density.
Lost in the immensity of sensitivity.
Creativity – diversity ignored,
difficult to withstand or understand animosity.
Lack of deniability or accountability.
Pray for solidarity in a world so complex.
Like a refugee in my own life,
can’t contain all the strife,
seek a perfect bite of life.
Equality is viewed as culpability.
Equanimity—a forgotten skill.
World a difficult pill to swallow.
The time is nigh to get up on high—
diversity now outlawed,
due to racism and fraud.
Maya Angelou, political activists, philosophers—excommunicated.
Passed 60 years outdated – filled with hatred.
Mein Kampf cultivated.
History teachings decimated, destroyed.
Banned books strive to erase what happened.
So many frustrated.
An imbalance of justice prevails.
This administration pales.
Live in a world where peace curtails.
Mind alive and rich, full of detail.
O’ ne’er will I fail or derail.
Must struggle forward to face
immortality ‘fore I turn to dust.
Woman is not less than man, yet treated so.
We are only human, not good and evil.
Rapacity controls men—
wonder how long before we’re all banned
from the grandstand,
live in a wasteland,
given the backhand
in a game we’re unfamiliar with.
Our great nation,
like an ablation of my mind—
need a vacation
from the aggravation of blaxploitation.
Not worth the energy I expend
as I extend myself.
Feel a stranger to myself
in a strange land.
Please Lord,
I need time to heal.
Comments: If this poem moved you, made you think, or stirred something inside—I'd love to hear from you. Feel free to share your reflections or how it resonates with your own experiences in the comments below.
