Reading in the paper about local government policies

We are not people.

We are not the soldiers valiantly fighting

Spears unbroken and silver in the dawn

Agains the darkness inside our hearts.

We are not poets.

We do not sing the tales

Of the monsters in our heads

And the heroes who fell to their claws.

We are not people.

We are not unified and happy and gay

Inside we are the foes we imagine

In the night, with blankets as armor,

We are not people

We are the ward against ourselves

In the same breath of life

We know the shadows

We hold the line.