A greater hand at play,
I’ve been placed on this earth
For another’s folly’s
Because there is no rhyme or
Reason for me to be this damned.
It’s a joke, right? To be given
a destiny as lonely as this.
To be envied and desired
but forever misunderstood.
It’s the shade of my skin,
The texture of my hair that
drives them into a frenzy.
but when I speak—crickets.
a liar! A thief! You are no true born,
No queen! A falsehood, a puppet,
YOU DO NOT BELONG HERE.
Or anywhere. If we are being honest,
how could I set find my own footing
when I have two right feet? Toppled over,
dazed and love-hungry, I will join
the lone wolfs who mourn at the eleventh hour.
I will strip myself bear and take
blades to my flesh, ripping and slicing
until the crowd gets their fill. It’s the eyes
that scare me— the lust at the depravity, the sin.
To see me plummet to the earth like Icarus,
they would pay to see me fall again and again and again…
Mecca-Amirah Jackson 