John Dossey

 

to act is to be real

and wave your hands, showing the

world how real you are

to act is to have others who are

willing to be real alongside

you, waving and screaming

“we are here, we are here

and we are many in numbers”

and we wave, and we shout

we are real, we exist,

and this advances us

but at what cost?

i act as i sit and watch and

exist

i act by living in a world that

hates me

my fear is not of ridicule,

for of that i have had plenty

my fear is not of words,

for those are misinterpreted

and faulty communication

no, my fear is of death

and of becoming the next

“his name was” trend

i am more than a name

i am more than my body,

which is misinterpreted

even more than my words

i act by existence,

my screams are real

and my chains creak under my strength

no, you need not write

“his name was john”

for my legacy is more than a name

i act by existing

and for that i may have my existence stolen

for simply daring to walk the street

with the body i was born in

and the mind that is my own

the mind that screams deafeningly loudly

against unhearing ears

to act is to live,

to subsist

but to subsist is to be seen

with broken and scratched lenses

by a world who wants us to go

away

to act is to be real,

to be alive

to live

and to live is to die

but death mustn’t be so bad

after all,

only those who existed once

have a chance to

unexist