Please protect me from harm.
Keep me safe, as my place in this classroom is debated.
Save me from those who want to save me.
Steer me away from those with good intentions and bad actions.
Protect me from those who reject me - but especially - from those who want to keep me here in a place that denies who I am.
Help me to understand that I do not deserve to be expelled. Help others to understand that making my expulsion illegal, takes away one of my only escapes.
Please help others to see, that it is not my expulsion that is the tragedy. The tragedy is a childhood spent in shame. The tragedy is only knowing this place.
Please direct your efforts to my liberation, not my assimilation.
Help me to find somewhere I can survive.
Help others to love me.
Don’t force them to pretend.
Help me love myself.
Help all my friends get out. Leave nobody here.
If you love us, set us free.
Then burn this place down.
Photo by Amaury Gutierrez on Unsplash