
Not Enough
Falling through the cracks of invisibility
Surrounded by the closing walls
Not mine, of theirs, imposed by your society
Not enough space to express, to celebrate
To let go, always looking over my shoulder
No not to take offense, to survive.
Your world is not enough
Not enough in between your privilege and oppression
Fighting and squeezing through these cracks
To breathe and raise our eyes
Only to be told what and how to.
You say depression is not real
Because you can’t fathom something beyond your experience
You say what’s a gender non-conforming asexual
With a veiled sneer on your face
Not enough veiled though, you can afford that
Because you rather stay than read
You holler about too much social justice
I say not enough social justice
Unlike you, it’s not a talking point for us
It’s our survival but still, just not enough.
Your exasperation and sighs,
A reaction to inconvenience caused by us
Of clashing worldviews and conventions
Except it isn’t, it’s our lives
We don’t get to choose to play devil’s advocate
On our trans rights issue, on our mental health issues
You mock our safe space, trigger warnings, pronouns
With shallow jokes masquerading as dark humor
With taunts and humiliations that injures, not just insults
From your echelons of power
Thrusting down your boots on our faces
Pushing us down in the cracks for us to disappear
As if looking up and hoping was a fucking crime
Because even this much was not enough
And yet you had had enough of us.
You go out there attaching values of normalcy
And pile upon those who stray
You listen to Another Brick in the Wall
Oblivious to the irony staring back at you.
So threatened by our mere existence
But we are here to stay, now and forever.
Right now, a boy comes out as pansexual
To the derision of his peers and parents
Another girl gets assaulted, because
She chose not to smile back at the stranger’s “compliment”
A transwoman is killed, why —
Because she was a ungodly deviant
That autistic child in your neighborhood
You bully and call them a waste of space
A man suffering from depression hangs himself
You join in the herd crying cowardice and junkie.
Statistics and numbers all thrown into your face
Yet not enough are they for you
Because your “not enoughs” are a luxury
Ours is the hindrance to existence.
Hiding behind your institution and structures
And yet you dare call us weak and cowards
No we haven’t had enough and this is the beginning
We have died, we have lived and we will die more
By your hands, at the feet of your institutions
That you erected to protect yourselves
Except one day they won’t be enough to hold you
We will lay bare the structure, because one day
We would have had enough of being not enough.
