This poem originally appeared on Sumayyah Said So as part of National Poetry Writing Month.
Image is mine
flag bearer
pressure
to conform
to confirm
to fail to contradict
sitting on my chest
and
i
can’t
breathe
in a chokehold by the keepers of society
i’m too much too soon
shedding and resisting labels
always underestimated
only validated
sometimes by my own
invisible
expect for labor indivisible
many nations
plagued by the missionaries of your god
civil liberties
canceled and rewritten at the will
of the people that claimed that freedom was for all
not y’all
Sumayyah Talibah © 11 April 2017
