When

When the people holding the keys and opportunities

sacrifice compassion

for order

When paltry charity

masquerades as mercy

and humiliation is just another weight to bear

when hands that don’t understand

strike

When the untested judge

demands the not so simple task of conformity

Their ultimatums press down, immobilize, incarcerate

When the well intentioned pleas of

“why can’t you just….

follow the path

walk straight

be quiet”

bring tears, leave scars

remember that

every day of defiance

every day of survival

is a day closer to the chance

to seize those elusive keys and opportunities

and sacrifice order

for compassion

by Christina Lynn Lambert

This poem is for everyone who has struggled and hoped to find a way to one day thrive instead of just survive within a world that isn’t patient and doesn’t always know or understand how to help, and sometimes doesn’t want to.

Children are the most vulnerable and tend to be at the mercy of those who often want order by any means necessary. For all the kids who struggle under the weight of society’s expectations of normal, for the kids who disagree with the messages they have been given and told to believe, for the kids who speak out against the injustices they see and want to change the world, for the kids who struggle to find their voice and their courage, for the kids who struggle with a disability- whether that disability is visible or not, for the kids who are forced to face changes in their lives they never thought possible, for the kids who challenge their peers’ perceptions of normal, for the kids who don’t have enough to eat or a safe place to live or clothes that fit or safe neighborhoods to play in, for the kids whose safe neighborhoods have become oppressive, paved, video-monitored conformist hells – don’t give up. Keep struggling. Keep fighting. May you find the strength to endure the present and the help and inspiration to find a better, brighter tomorrow.