The 2020 US elections were not just about differing political views. People’s lives were impacted on the basis of their skin color, their gender, their sexuality, or their religion.
It bred uncertainty and fear in people who had been targeted for years.
Human beings should be respected for just that, being human. There is no other clause or addition to that.
Here is a poem dedicated to those that felt weak. Rather than offer a solution of light in the darkness, I offer a hand to hold in it.
6th November 10:11 pm
I felt it in waves, that dissolve in the sand
Blue and red neon signs holding each hand
“Am I human enough?”
My skin dipped chocolate and my heart of rainbows
I can’t seem to hide, in the hours that count down—
I can’t seem to stop.
Maybe if my eyes could close, maybe if my mind switched off—
Maybe if red and blue-dyed into a plethora of purple,
losing in color and gaining the “other”.
“In a world with its eyes closed, a person with their’s open
Isn’t it strange how now they are made blind?”
Is that victory?
Effortless rounds that never escape a cycle,
Drugged on more and living less.
If it never starts, it never ends.
People become collateral, waves become loose sand.
A gripping fist, shows an empty hand.
My throat is parched, lungs need a break—
But I haven’t slept yet:
Waking up in this state.
7th November 5:50 am
Swati Ramaswamy is a recent graduate from UC Davis and is an aspiring creative writer who loathes speaking in the third person.
