Poem: The things I see

The things I see

are not part

of the constructed

collective consciousness.

The things I see

are terrifying.

They haunt me in nightmares.

They fill me with anguish.

They make me cry

and want to scream

my desolation

with big despairing eyes —

like in that black and white

expressionist painting.

They make me long for a better world.

The things I see

others have been trained not to see.

They have been trained

to see other things instead.

And to turn against me.

So, they accuse me

of being a troublemaker

of being crazy

subversive

destructive

ungrateful

greedy

depraved and deviant.

They stifle my cries

so that I can behave.

And vainly

they try to change me.

But I keep refusing

and holding on to my vision

hoping I'll never be like them,

wishing for a miracle to happen

to make them see the things I see.

Afrodity Giannakis

From GLW issue 229