Never Perfect, Never Enough

Our voices can be

painfully loud

even without 

breaking the 

perfect stillness 

of our lips

Our disdain has words,

but it has silence too

Our tongues fly

sharply, bitterly;

daggers into the ears

of our victims

But the silence 

of a turned back

has broken the 

eager soul of 

more than we 

could ever count 

Sticks and stones

have broken bones,

but words and silence 

are why they’re thrown 

For how many 

are we willing 

to send the message:

You’re not like me,

you don’t fit in,

you’re not enough

Skins of the wrong shade,

love of the wrong kind,

prayers to the wrong God

Geographical boundaries 

that were crossed

somehow lessened 

their worth in our 

exclusionary eyes

Their disabilities 

give us discomfort

Their obesity 

fails to balance 

within the

acceptable range

of our delicate scales

They are never perfect,

never enough

We avert our gaze

Even if our lips are sealed,

our voice is clear:

they should hide 

In a closet, 

in a kitchen,

in the country 

in which we think 

they should reside

So we don’t 

shatter the illusion

that we are perfect

in our own eyes

28 Jan 2020