You Burn | Teen Ink

You Burn

December 1, 2015
By CCGancho BRONZE, Louisville, Kentucky
CCGancho BRONZE, Louisville, Kentucky
1 article 0 photos 0 comments

Loathsome, cold and hateful.
You rob your fellow human of his/her worth.
You dehumanize a foreign concept only because you are unable to fit it into your closed-off mind.
You collect the dignity of people different than you in a poor attempt to fill your deflated heart,
But to no avail.
You smash, you insult, you knock down.
You stereotype, you neglect, you blame.
Your bigoted eyes of fire set innocence to flame.
You burn.
You burn others, you burn yourself, you burn society,
You burn.
You spit hateful opinions out of your mouth
And leave a bitter taste in mine.
A contagion harming the goodness in other people, you burn.
I want to put out your flame of hatred.
For I don’t hate you.
I won’t smash you, or insult you, or knock you down.
I won’t stereotype you, or neglect you, or blame you.
You are a person.
Cursed by your own freewill and trained hatred,
You are only a person.
Many misunderstand you and I try to avoid doing the same.
You are beautiful and have recognizable value,
And just have misplaced your ability to see it in people who aren’t a reflection of yourself.
Put down the mirror;
Pick up empathy.
Put down your hammer;
And use your free hands to resculpt your shriveled and dented heart.
You can be cured of your disease: racism.
You are only a person,
But you can burn brighter than you think.


The author's comments:

For this piece, I was supposed to describe something ugly as beautiful. This poem is about racism.


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