“We Are All the Same”

We want to say
“We are all the same,”
And believe it with our core,
It’s the message we were taught from cut and pasted MLK,
We don’t see the whole picture
If we close our eyes and assert the truth of our sameness,
But are we all the same?
Not in experience,
I cannot say I’ve lived a day in your shoes,
To appreciate how life is as you,
Human, sentient, even then variation makes our experiences
Different,
Location, soci political climate,
Characteristics that dictate our place in it,
Social qualifiers that mark our skin, our minds, our bodies, our heritage,
And the histories behind them,
Must not be glossed over,
It must be worked through,
Recognized,
To see the truth beneath,
And the real meaning meant
Of “we are all the same”.

Alabama Shame

We will shame you
From youth,
For what your body can do,
For the red,
For the sin that someone’s God condemned some woman for,
For the legs you sprout,
For the breasts you grow,
Shame,
Shame for the urges,
No matter how natural,
Shame for conceiving
–Analyzing how, when and why,
Shame when you can,
Shame when you can’t,
Shame for a body everyone seems to have their say in,
Their say inside of,
Shame and sin,
Judgement being bestowed,
By laymen
–Everyone has an opinion,
About your body,
Because political the personal has always been,
Your blood is shed and everyone else claims your pain,
Whether you birth,
Or need other arrangements made,
And your rights are not your own,
For they can,
And will be taken away