I Will Not Be the Vessel of Hate
A poem by Emilie Galindo
They poured their ludicrous, colour-centric and patronising poison down my ears.
Attempted to recruit me with a spurious sense of superiority.
But I said to myself.
I will not be the vessel of hate.
They made me walk a straight, narrow, path. Speaking with vehement abhorrence of deviancy and pervasion. Homogeneity was frowned upon in certain social situations. They plastered the walls that flanked the straight path with rhetorical ignominy. Blending convenient bits and pieces of religion and science to tout their ignorance.
But I said to myself.
I will not be the vessel of hate.
They tried to instill in me the age-old self-fulfilling prophecies that they imputed on biology. Erroneously attributing too much power to what lies south of our belly.
But I said to myself.
I will not be the vessel of hate.
And you know what?
There was nothing strenuous about it.
Colour, class, sex, preference seem like appurtenances
When you choose to be the vessel of compassion.
About the Poet
Émilie Galindo is a 28 year-old English teacher in Bordeaux, France. She was born in the coastal town of La Rochelle in France in 1992. From a modest background, music and series were a window to the world. Despite the sharp bitterness of her relationship with her parents, she held on to her step-father’s love for lyrics. That deep appreciation eventually led her to Bob Dylan and the 60s protest music. A love of words, music, and history that would become fodder for the academic essays she composed during her masters. The first on the lyrics of the sixties protest songs, the second on the cultural representation of women in the sixties patriarchal society in the series Mad Men. And as a teacher, she wholeheartedly relies on pop culture to connect with her pupils, and to connect her pupils with the theoretical content.
