I’m a mouse

Always have been

It doesn’t take much for me to hide in my little home

Where I am safe from the daggering eyes

Or judgmental looks of others

But sometimes I get fed up

Tired of the loud footsteps that diminish my tranquility

That destroy everything good and pure in my eyes

And I am overcome with anger

Every fiber in my being wants to yell

Tell them what they’re destroying

But I’m a mouse

So I don’t speak up

 

There comes a time when this mouse

Gets exhausted over hiding in her hole

A time when this mouse contemplates

Who she is and if she matters at all

I am deciding that I can't keep 

flinching over every loud footstep

or Every crack made in my little home by others

 

What would happen if I stepped out?

If I realized that my now shattered hole was a

False sense of security?

That the world cannot currently

Be as it ought to be?

It does no good to stay in the hole

Imagining a perfect world

Free of pain, loss, hate

 

Stepping out of the hole would mean pain

It would mean so much rejection and hurt

But what if it brought something else?

What if crawling out of my hole meant

That I could have giant footsteps too?

But they wouldn’t destroy everything in their path

What if there were flowers growing with every step

And every area was left a bit better

Just because I wanted it bad enough

What if crawling out of my hole

Meant that I could love and love

Without limitation?

What if fixing all that I was afraid of

Caused me to dust off my heart

And finally being able to be someone

able to make a difference in the world?

 

There will come  a time when I

will stop living quietly 

And I will slowly begin to speak up

I will speak up against hurtful spouts of racism

And mental health stigma

I will speak up for my best friend

who happens to like the same sex 

I will speak up for all that matters

and pretty soon, all those 

loud footsteps won't bother me 

so much because I'll know my purpose

And that is to leave a mark 

And to leave the world better 

than it was when I arrived