I was critical of my result,
Fearful I was deemed less
Progressive,
less inclusive,
Less open-minded,
less accepting,
less anti-racist,
Less,
Less
Than I see myself,
Than I wish to be,
What can I fix?
What can I make be
What I know is more authentically
me?
But check,
Check one,
Check one, two, three,
There’s more to the picture than I had perceived,
There’s a place I reside where I am alone,
Where shielding my differences
Is how I make this
Safe–“home”,
More comfortable than were I out bearing all,
Being me,
Being free,
I’m enclosed in the wild open,
Still a black girl in Maine,
A rare, wild specimen,
Afraid of being tracked,
Tagged,
hunted by the
Majority,
whom I’m swimming in,
Marginality makes me weary,
Getting closer to authenticity is my aim,
But duck and weave is the game,
I am no less,
Just extremely
stressed,
Identity under duress
Tag: minimization
To Shrink
You worry,
That everyone judges you,
For qualities innate,
For qualities socially constructed,
You worry,
That secretly they hate
What you are,
You worry
And so you shrink
That voice,
Shrink
that smile,
Shrink
that stance,
Shrink
that idea,
Shrink,
Shrink,
Shrink until you can’t find yourself,
So small,
Remember who you are,
Dare to be,
Despite
Dare to grow
Your heart and soul
Acceptance & Adaptation
Cocooned,
For fear I may offend
By being,
Pulled self back so far it is inverted,
Into an observer,
Without the privilege of experiencing,
Of getting close,
Of risking rejection,
Out of fear of that very thing,
Will self to dare,
To push boundaries,
Past minimization of difference,
To grasp the splendor of true diversity,
Reaching, teaching modes of
Acceptance and adaptation in
and of my self.
She of Letters 