Above All Else

I am human above all else.

Time and time again I see popular posts about poetry, about tyranny, about who we are. Well I am human. I am not first my race, I am not first my sexuality, I am not first my gender, I am first, a human. I am a slam poet among many other things, but I am human. My heart beats in my chest at a pace slightly above average, my larger than average lungs breathe deeply in and out and in and out to reset the constant ticking clock as a reminder of who I am. Human. We are all destined to get older and older until the day that we don’t. Until the day we no longer do anything. For that matter, we are destined to die as humans, it’s been the elephant in the room since we knew what an elephant was. I’ve been the elephant in the room since I’ve known what cruelty was. But we are human. Believing we are immune to cruelty or that we can avoid cruelty is foolish. You’ve known that since you were a child, since you first learned to walk or ride a bike, you have seen it for as long as you can remember, in the faces of those who have yet to learn how to hide it, and you have been a victim of it many times before, but they are humans too. Humans make mistakes, not the kind my father convinced me that I was, but the kind of mistakes we make on days when we forgot we were not the only humans alive, not the only lost and confused souls swirling in this toilet bowl to infinity. Don’t tell me that you are more than this because of your race. Don’t pretend that you are more than this because of what you believe. Don’t convince yourself you are more than this because of your sexuality, your gender, your condition, you.... are human. Magnificently, wonderfully, beautifully, human, above all else and don’t let anyone convince you that you are anything less.

This poem is about: 
Me

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