Welcome to a Day in my World

Today I will not steal the meat, I’ll tell myself that eating oatmeal is a treat,

Today I will wear long sleeves, like I do in July to cover the hole in my arms were I used to get high.

Today I will drink my dose of Methadone, prescribed by a Moral M.D that still respects his profession

Not like the one who fed me perc’s for ten years and was only concerned with his erection.

Today I will collect my token for being clean from crack

For three years and a day

Today I will be many me’s as I always must act as if in a play.

Today I will tell the truth and be as kind as I can

Because today I need your help and for you to understand

Please realize I don’t blame society, my family, or a man.

I don’t want your charity or change or great plans

So sit back- open your heart, read and retain,

because this opportunity my friends may never come again.

I have the privilege to talk to you, the responsibility to include all the others,

We will not be put on a labeled shelf  or stuffed into a cupboard.

Meet my girlfriend that relies on a walker;

who shall choose her an aide, one that will wash her?

What about the single black mother, with two babies and two fathers?

Does any one ask her why she left those men, does anyone even bother?

Now meet my friend from Iran, who ran for another.

To be yourself or be killed what, would you do for a lover?

If the choice was yours, if you faced that hill?

Would you climb to the top like my aboriginal brothers?

Who suffered in re-form school, hell in those days,

They changed her name and took her language away,

Used and abused and now she lives in the Fray.

There are others, out there, who now walk in the light,

Giving hot coffee and blankets to all those in sight.

There is a man who passes out condoms, not bought by the powers that be, safety isn’t a religious choice, and this prince pays for them from his O.D.S.P,

of course.

If you see an immigrant please tell them for me,

What ever you do don’t say refugee,

For if they do, they will be shacked and led to detention;

ashamed for this we should be, for this is not our intention.

I have mentioned just a few of our struggles in life,

However there are so many not yet brought to light.

Open your window as wide as your mind,

Imagine yourself homeless and you just might find,

A sparkle in the eyes of the women that ladles your soup,

A little change in the hand of that man in the tailored suite.

We don’t blame society for where we are today,

I can assure you here we will not stay.

So thank you for reading a day in our world

And thank you for allowing  our stories to be heard.

WRITTEN FOR PEOPLE’S PANEL REVIEW

by Michelle Nelson

Written for the Peoples Panel Review

Written by Michelle Nelson

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