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Creative WritingCultural Criticism

THAT

Nevaeh Turner Allie
December 3, 2020 One Min Read
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Please check here if that applies to you

Yea, that’s why I requested you

I am not that. 

I do not let that define me.

When you label me as that, it etches that into my plaque. 

I’ve shed tears, taken pills and faced fears to run from that.

When my successes are attributed to that, they are not my own.

It’s as if that’s all you know me as, you speak to me as if I don’t know that’s how you see me.

‍

You see, I can’t blame you or anyone else around you. You raised me as that. You helped me through that. You introduced me as that. I’m past that. When I complain about that, I’m not looking for a solution but an ear. An ear to listen, in order to listen you must accept. Accept — something that isn’t in your vocabulary. What is? “Here’s why I’m worse off than you.” 

“I don’t know what you want me to do.” What should you do? Forget that. Do not pick and choose when that is a benefit. That has only made small hurdles feel like large mountains. That is not your fault. Your fault… that could be an entirely different poem.

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