Page 22 - Poems by Alyson Malach - Childhood to Adulthood

Do not tell me what I have experienced, do not put me down with

your words.

Who are you to denigrate and harass me
about things you have only read and heard?

Waking up every day to hear and read the news

that deny my pain and hurt.

It deepens my depression, it breaks and squeezes my heart,

it raises fear and sounds danger alerts.

I feel helpless, my mental health is shot.

I do not care if you believe if I have experienced racism or not.

I do care that you con�nue to harass me

with your microaggressions and bile.
I do not report racism and microaggressions

to have you minimise my pain all the while.

Think about your behaviour stop always pu�ng your opinions out.

My mental health is being fractured

and you do not know what you are talking about.

You sit in judgement presen�ng the news shirked by the TV.

You do not care, and you are not bothered

that your accusa�ons are damaging me.

I speak for many Black/Brown people; I speak for adults and kids.
Who are harmed by your vitriol,

lack of empathy and a lot more that you did?

We need to come together and record our pain.

To stop people like you denying our lived experiences again and again

Stop denying racism, stop covering it up.

Stop describing it as unfortunate, a mistake, or just a dirty look.

21 | P a g e