Each day I sing and perform I count as victory over blatant favoritism and over all a system built to fail us.   Something setup to remind us we are other. Wrong. Ugly. So much that we have to fight to learn a history hidden. And love how we are made while everything around us screams change. Straighten your hair. We tan you bleach....She was a warm brown. Blue undertones. I remember her.   She sang to me. Her favorite thing was to make me sing along to the Reading Rainbow theme song when I was little. When she was still here.   Her absence hangs over me like an overcast sky. Pushing my feet down harder with every step. The coming rain is pressed to my temples and crowding my mind. Making my knees buckle. Crying in the shower where no one can hear me but God. Father. Silent. Always listening. Watching me slam into emotional walls, stand up and covered in new scars. Where is she?   Forgiveness is not for them. It is for you. Tha...

And I'm calm Untouchably separate from others' actions Continuously giving love despite others' retractions Unexplainable the sense of peace that follows presence A powerful sense of self has taken up full residence A flow reconnecting the soul to potential energies Untapped centers of perceived external synergy Asymmetry balanced within no longer limits me Acceptance a voiceless, timeless remedy I pass ethereal through the swords of imagined enemies In my perception, long held perspective has shifted to one of constant movement Acknowledging the inevitability of my imperfections, I embrace inner improvement