For Alice Denny
I do not know, and please, do not say
what other poison rained down
upon the Wildflowers
the day the sun was lost
behind dull tongues
which spat sharp
scything words
to cut them down
where they stood.
Before that day,
before naivety was butchered
by barbed word,
I'd never met anyone whose
fragile shell was stronger
for the cracks,
whose shell was the lesser
part of the sum of their whole.
Someone for who
the war still raged
to be equal in the eyes
of those who only saw
big hands and a throat
with the kiss of Adam upon it.
Someone who fought back
as those ignorant of beauty
squashed stem and petal
under jack boot attitude
to repress Wildflower's bloom.
But we all know your heart
is stronger than fear
all seen you stood naked,
clothed only in vulnerability;
seen you retell your world
in poetic verse
with ink black words
writ big in tears across the night;
seen crowds soak them up
then applaud your bravery
as you held their attention,
while your red flower dress
kept them guessing,
because you are more complex
than poetry and fashion
or a simple word.
*This is a poem about people who are marginalised and oppressed, but who still stand up and refuse to be terrorised or kept down, people who stand proud and say 'This is who I am'.*
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