Poem: Tragedy And Hope

TRAGEDY AND HOPE

Tragedy and Hope.

Both pillars of my existence

Tearing down, Lifting up

Propping up states of confusion

Blinded by darkness

No match in sight

A candle engulfed at both ends

The slow burn of stigma

Discrimination's scathing fire

Grafted onto your heart

Leaving scars that never fade.

How do we navigate storms?

When the rudder your born with is broken

Identity's wreckage adrift

In an ocean of wounded souls.

Standing against status quos

Stretching our spirits thin

Taught with emotions, explosively loaded

Society's violent recoil

Smashes our porcelain worth

And respect's brittle windows

Who will help pick up those pieces?

Echoes of empathy shame us

With reverberations of violence

Must be the homos and freaks shattered pride

You carve deep your rainbow abuse

Into the arms of Trans kids

Will you even look us in our black eye?

The weight of judgment is measured

On scales of justice blind

To the fatal tragedies thrust upon us

And the hope that we're seeking to find.

Mikayla Cadger