Here there be Dragons

You extend your hand. “I noticed you’re new here. What’s your name?”

Clark’s introducing her around.  “This is my good friend, Diana, she’s in from out of town.”

Clark stops a few feet away and squints at you worriedly from behind those ridiculous glasses you’re 99% sure he doesn’t actually need, and asks tentatively, “Everything all right?”

You ignore him in favor of staring at the inky dark numerals hovering over the beaming fool gesticulating some fantastic yacht story for a gaggle of secretaries and minor columnists.

Tho there is a slight edit needed, hopefemains changed their web address a month or so ago.

Hoperemainsonline.com

you say i am too young

too young to be a feminist

too young to know my own sexuality

too young to be depressed

too young to hate

too young to protest

too young to be an activist

too young

too stupid

too naive

and you are right

i am too young

too young to be scared of bullets ricocheting through my school, embedding themselves into my fellow classmates and having to watch as the life from my best friends once bright and hopeful eyes flickers out, knowing i will never be able to apologies for that stupid fight we were having, knowing i will never be able to laugh, smile, or talk with her again, knowing i will never be able to hug her again, knowing i will never be able to tell her i love her one last time

too young to be scared of being raped by a man while i walk down the street in my school uniform because i can feel his eyes watching me and i should have waited for someone to walk with me, i should have waited for jacky to have finished her test so we could walk together because now if something happens to me it’s my fault but i just wanted to go home to get ahead on schoolwork

too young to be scared of finding my friend dead in a sticky pool of her own crimson blood because slitting her wrists and watching the blood flow was better than living or finding her body cold and lifeless on the bathroom floor with candy colored pills scattered around her and stuffed down her throat because she’d rather go out in a loopy daze than try to withstand and fight the torment and i couldn’t make it in time to stop her

too young to be scared of seeing a familiar face on the news because jordan was black and looked older than his actual age and the white middle aged cop shot in “self defense” even though jordan was unarmed and innocent or because elias was muslim and was carrying a “suspiscous” bag and was shot and later died because the police officers thought he was a “terrorist” when elias just wanted to get home to his mom and little sister with a jewelry box to give them, which now sits in peices on the concrete floor

too young to be scared of finding my lgbt friends killled, abandoned, or sent off to a conversion camp because all they wanted was love and acceptance but instead they found hate and rejection because they were “disgusting sinners” who were just “confused” and katy is finally back from camp but she doesn’t even remember my damn name

too young to be sobbing with such lose and grief over people so dear to me who were killed and died too young because no one would help them because all of their cries were “fake” because they were too young to know “real” pain

too young to be scarred, bruised, bloody and beaten by a war i did not start or choose to fight in

you say i am too young

and you are not wrong

i am too young

too young for

H O M O P H O B I A

R A C I S M

S E X I S M

R A P E

S E L F   H A R M

S U I C I D E

G U N   V I O L E N C E

and

S C H O O L   S H O O T I N G S

to be normal to me

i should not be so desensitized by this violent reality

so yes, i am too young

but you cannot blame me

for my hyper awareness of our reality

my generation was born with information at our fingertips

and we have been told to sit still and be quiet

because the adults were talking

but you had your chance

it is now our turn to speak

and our turn to fight

because our rage is pure fire

and with every ragged breath we take

our lungs get more shredded by all of the hate and misery

that is ingrained so deeply in our society

you say we are “too sensitive”

because we are “hormonal teenagers who cannot control our emotions”

and therefore we “cannot have opinions”

but you can no longer invalidate our claims as we yell for change

because the DEATH of our classmates

and the BLOOD of our friends

has paved the path for this revolution

your generation may have won battles

but my generation will be the one to win the war

my generation will be the one to instill change and bring peace

because we grew up in a hating world spiraling into darkness and death

and dying was never our biggest fear

watching the world burn around us was expected

but we fully intend to repair the damage you all have so carelessly done

>>we are generation z and we will be the ones to rise from the ashes<<

3/31/18

started: 2:31 a.m.