Poem: Who Doesn't Know the Shame?

Who Doesn’t Know the Shame?

Who doesn’t know the shame

That others place upon your name

For being something they assume,

Heaping upon you all their gloom?

It may be ‘cause of your skin’s hue

Or because of your accents clue

Of where you come, lands they’d undone

In spite from a king’s sense of fun.

It’s un American to think

One’s better because of some rank

Made up by finances from poor

Who found thieves ransacking their door.

But we Americans seldom

Care that here we’re not a kingdom

For we have fallen for masters

Tearing us from our own lords.

Who doesn’t know that shame

Others have placed on your name

For being something they assume,

Heaping upon you their own gloom.

May 2023

About This Poem:

This is a poem about feeling misunderstood, something that has happened to all of us. I think two things can come of being misunderstood: 1) you resent others for not understanding you; 2) you begin to understand others feeling out of place because you have been there. This poem aims at that second feeling: empathy. The photo is just a selfie gone bad, but I kept it and now I know why. :)