Awakening

 They had wrapped blinds over my eyes, tasked me

with painting a scene, one I had never seen;

so I had painted the brightest colours

in the dullest scape to please.

B+ for trying, nothing more but nothing less.

Kindness or cruelty? I forget which is which.

They fed me lies in shades of white all my life;

taught me colours and taught me politics

while I pictured a glimpse of what could

have been. Oh. They just let me wonder.

Kindness or cruelty? I forget which is which.

They whisper at me to come to their plight

for my blood is their soil, my body their right;

but visions plague me, I cry out in my sleep.

Is my crime just to speak? Then, beware.

My hands shake from rage, not fear.

Kindness or cruelty? I forget which is which.