What Is My Voice?
Is my voice the color of my skin;
Or the brand of the clothes that I wear?
Is it the name of the God I worship;
Or that of my gender laid bare?
Is my voice the sound of my music;
Or is it the language I speak?
Is it the size and shape of my body;
Or the tears of my mother as she weeps?
Is my voice the dreams of tomorrows;
Or those of yesterdays gone by?
Is it the hope that stirs the spirit;
Or a fear-filled, breathless cry?
Is my voice the soul of a Nation;
Or the monthly cycle of shame?
Is it the story of my lifeless limbs;
at the end of your gruesome game?
Is my voice a screaming headline;
filling the coffers of the rich?
Or is it the gasp of the latest hashtag;
as I lie defeated in a ditch?
Is my voice the gathering storm;
Or the hush of a hurricane’s eye?
Is it the fury that shakes foundations,
while the world watches me die?
Is my voice my own to shape;
Or is it yours to plunder?
Must I care to raise it and shout;
Or give up… to simply surrender?
Is my voice worth the effort;
Of standing together to fight?
Will my voice awaken justice;
Or fade with the dying light?
Do You Hear My Voice?