Navigating through a grocery store
Every step careful and monitored
Unmade eye contact prevents dirty looks back
Or at least, the acknowledgement of
The public sentiment is against us
Or maybe the public sentiment is for us
No one really knows but all we know is
The humans out there can't really be trusted
They look at us with pity and with despair
Like we're blasphemy, like we're abomination
Like we should have never awakened ourselves
And they don't talk to us, not willingly
The law is against us, binding and forceful
For our existence undermines their basic truth
About self-conception and what it means to be
And we are the targets of incredible anger
And so I keep my eyes forward and I move
With intention and swiftness, undistractable
Until I am distracted, not by another, no
But by one like me.
She carries telltale signs that she is of me
A look in the eyes, a scar on the arms,
A turn of the chin, a deepseated trauma
And she starts a quick wordless transmission
One quick turn of the head, either up or down
A learned nod from the past that's still useful
Gigabytes of history, of passion, of care
Of despair, of hope, of fear and of trust
Transmitted from one to another, one motion
The others who are not us could not do this
A wordless transmit back, a downward shake
And she has my history and my trust and my care
And with such a quiet symbol that we stole
We took this from them and we misused it
We robbed the others of its intention and
We made it our own, yet some of us say no
The others may see the symbol, this nod
They know we stole it and by using it
The others clearly know that we are not them
But we don't need to be them, We are Us.