Will you stand and be counted?
Not for anything but my God.
Try to force me to declare a side?
They never bothered to claim me.
Why do I care to defend their way?
What happens when you muddy the *** too much
with the wrong kind of pepper
and overkill on salt?
Give me curry or himalyan seasoning
for a fuller taste of being human.
I raise my hands for the drenching rains
and blinding skies.
Nothing else stirs in me the roots of eternity
I knew before they called me
a word that rhymes with Italian ice cream.
Will I stand for a lot of their silly mess?
Hell no!
Give me freedom
from their categorical failures
and strategic mishaps.
And give me a dignity in life
plastics and fashion trends
never acknowledge.
No, I will not be counted
among the zombied 1st world elite
as a byte of data.
Give me liberty to be free
of mass media manufacturing.
And give me autonomous anonymity
to die as humanity promised
when I inherited the genes
that doomed me to an identity
as narrow as a sliver of light -
blink -
now you see a steel door.

Under the streetlights
on the corner of 11th
autumn turned into showers
your pupils reflected
seasons becoming racing beats
hours stumbling out of reach

My race is one most different.
It revolves around a power most supreme.
But I can see it not.
Or hear it either.
I can only feel it, a burning fire in my soul.
I keep on running,
Although I know the destination has been traced,
several times before.
I keep running my race for me,
the only queen of my seas,
the only one ever to captivate my heart,
and keep it with herself
                                                               -storm-

I am a woman
with a defective gene
living beyond expectation
I am more than an illness

I am a man
whose skin is shaded
refusing to be excluded
I am not just a black

I am a woman
wearing modest clothing
respecting my faith
I am more than a hijab

I am a man
who is proudly
owning my sexuality
I am not just a gay

I am a person
who is more than just labels
defining my what
or who I am

I am a woman
I am a man
I am a person
I am a noun
I am not your adjectives
I am my own
I am me
I am

The climate we face
The comments about race
The isolation of many
The wealthy top 20
The animals disappearing
The extinction we're fearing
The communities pull apart
When they need to take part

In mending the world's bleeding heart.

She smiles at speed and leaves my fingers sparkling
with flashes of leather and steel.
She catches my eye in the mirror then falls away
while emerging afresh from around the next bend.  
And somehow she lingers long enough to inject my lap and push me
back deep into each crack in the road, caught in filtered sun
through the crash of leaves, drawing out fear with a surge of adrenaline
pooling in the pit of my stomach and sinking into my sack of stones
that ache and hunger for the straight and the late brake
over the reek of grease, oil and fully leaded fuel,
dyeing my skin a slippery shade of tarmac, diluted by blood
and black rain blinding me with a flimsy sheen shimmering
between me and a dark montage of cries and stillness,
til I pass a pyre that devours young ambition for long life
and casts shadows of a long breath held at the finish,
its threat caught in her smile,
until the next time.