She sits with cold reasoning

trying to believe

knowing everyone around her

disagrees

decides to illicit a remark

cements her current posture.

If I look across the room

I can see she is different,

her burqa wraps her fears inside

eyes with tears imagine fear.

Yet this is all we have,

the only part of her,

she let’s us imagine without definition.

We haven’t thought about

later in the evening,

when unless she might clever distract

herself from the evening news,

unless she can simply sit and stare at a wall,

a blank slate of reality she’d rather never leave,

unless she can ignore the fear she feels

when her reality is a constant scrutiny.

She’ll never be able to laugh out loud

without an earshot ignorance spewing bigotry.

She won’t ride her bicycle in public without

a young child being told not to stare.

~

When I was a young child and discovered someone special,

I was told to look the other way, not asked, simply told.

I thought that rather bold,

when later on in life I realized I was being asked to ignore

another human being for having a soul I hadn’t seen before.

I wonder if they could feel my fear.

I wonder if tears remain the same after all these years.

I wander about without any confidence,

I live with fear, yet, I’ll take it for granted

because I can,

because she can’t I’ll flow my tears

I’ll ask her about her eyes,

I’ll think her lovely today.

I’ll wish her … peace.

Peace!

~

*photo credit: pinterest