As a woman I am told to be quiet

Keep it down

They try to keep me down

Below you, looking up

On my knees, I exist only in ways that service you

They want me to hear, not to speak

Your ignorance sneaks into my ears like smoke

Your laugh ignites a flame in my chest and it rises to my throat and I will not be silenced

Slash the tape over my mouth and say everything you are too weak to hear

I will scream for the people of color who are shot down in the streets every day

Like dogs

Your right to both bark and bite has been revoked by the Ferguson Police Force until further notice

I will scream at the politician defending the "sanctity" of marriage

Last time I checked marriage was about love

Something I guess you aren't too familiar with

I will scream for the women who are told to shut up

To laugh

To laugh at the rape joke

To laugh at the prospect of being violated in the most horrific way possible

I will scream for the men who are murdered just because they were born with a vagina

I guess I thought the only pre-requisite for being a “real” man was an absence of empathy

I will scream for the poor, working 3 jobs and not having the money to feed their kids

Cigar burns from a man named capitalism make them too ugly for the 1% to look at

You will not silence my screams until America is the utopia you claim it already is

I am flawless

I am flawless because I will never stop fighting against the flaws of this nation

I am flawless because when you slap my face for speaking up I will stare into yours and speak louder

I am flawless because I will never be afraid to say that you are not