Armor

It’s heavy

The armor, I mean

Like the ones

Our ancestors wore

Made of scales of iron

Shielding them from those

Who wanted them dead

Ours, you can’t see it

It’s made out of interlocking

Rings of generational trauma

And millennia of surviving

Etched into our DNA

It’s heavy this armor

Of lifetimes of bracing ourselves Before walking out into the world

Of dodging libels and hate

Like flying arrows and bullets

Of knowing to expect

The silence around us

To be louder

Than the voices of friends

Of having to justify how come

Our people aren’t dead yet

Despite so many attempts

It’s heavy this armour

And my shoulders are hurting this morning.

ADD