I Was Asked to Write Freely

Ranease Brown '21

Free write,

With liberty put thoughts to paper

Exercise the few rights you have in response to the rights that you don’t

Sitting here making space for those who don’t understand

Letting them learn how it feels, but using my words

How can I use mine when they don’t use theirs?

I can show you better than I can tell you

But don’t want to scare what’s left of your bliss

By bliss I mean ignorance

By ignorance I mean lack of exposure

And by lack of exposure I mean the privilege.

The privilege to walk around in a bubble

To make purchases out of want and not need

Wearing clothes from Target and not with one

Ones that make you feel comfortable.

My comfort is in my home and nowhere else

My comfort is not even in my car or school

It’s the people that I know with the windows closed and no trouble

It’s keeping a smile on my face so you can’t find a reason to degrade

I can’t be the stereotype if I act the opposite

I pull out your biases by confusing what you think you know about my people

You make the assumption while I already did it first.

First.

Too many firsts to count.

We can’t have a second or third until one of us makes the stand

We can’t celebrate anniversaries when it hasn’t happened in the first place

We don’t celebrate what we have because who seeks the minimum?

Who looks for the smallest amount unless out of dire need...

That’s what we are in

Dire need

It’s whether or not you look down long enough to notice

Free write

Write freely

Use the liberty you have now to make up for what you don’t

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