Paradigm Shift

You think of me and decide
Directly you decipher me…
Different
I’m different cause I’m distant
Detached where you distinctly dismissed me
Different
I’m different because I’m damaged so you neglect me
Disappointingly dissect me
Only to reject me
You ignore my dimensions…
Different
I’m different so you detain me
Disempower me and blame me
Disapprove of me and shame me
Because I challenge all you know
I’m different

I’m different so you had no choice to dismantle me
And now I’m on that mantle you see
A haunting memory of a life so distinguished
A life you had to extinguish
But a life you could never diminish
Because I’m different

And now this voice soars higher
Dominating the evil that tried to
Eliminate
Rising embers from ashes
Left behind of a life
Destructively disassembled
But never successfully destroyed
A life that dared to love…

To love the different
To stop lying and denying
To be the different
To dig deep and discover
That different
Is more dissimilar to foreign
And that we are looking
Too far in
To the development
Of a definition
That has no recognition
For the discrimination
In our nation
That drowns any dream of emancipation
And devours people like me
The different

But don’t hesitate
To contemplate that we
The different
Don’t pay haste to the distaste
That does not embrace
We are not disheveled on any level
By those discomforted
Those deaf to the sound
Of our disruptive drumming hearts
That dance to the beat of revolution
And demand evolution

Don’t guard our disregard
Deconstruct this constricting construction
Open the floodgates and wait
Let the love pour over you
Ending the hate that reigned over me

In your own way, on this day…
Stop divorcing yourself from me…
From the different
Stop demeaning our meaning
Be different