Untitled (a poem)

you fucking left me, you left me on the train

i saw your eyes glazing over while that man wrapped his thick fingers around my neck and tried to take my humanity from me.

i watched you look away, i watched you pretend like it wasn’t happening

what the fuck is wrong with you?

i will not be another Kitty Genovese because

there have been far too many of us already

people talk about phoenixes,

but what they don’t really remember is like Mama Butler said, we gotta burn before we can rise and well I have fucking burned so many times I have fire in my blood instead of haemoglobin.

those horrible clawing fingers and those vile words are not perceptions

that is why every slur, ever dirty look is like a dagger in my soul

they are facts in my life, that shit happens

how do you tell someone that you’re sorry?

i gotta rise above,

we, all us Kittys, we are all phoenixes

there is no other choice, no other road

i take my rage and hide my face

i spit truth because i cannot lie

i cannot die

because you left me on the train.

and my life is worth so much more than that

(c) 2013 T.G.