The Cold Hard Truth

Hate is not a storm

it’s a slow, choking smog.

It seeps into lungs,

kills without warning,

teaches children to point,

to laugh, to fear skin not
their own.

It’s taught at dinner tables,

hidden in silence,

shouted from pulpits,

smiled through clenched teeth.

Bigotry doesn’t wear a hood anymore

it wears suits, uniforms, badges, robes.

It hires and fires,

redlines neighborhoods,

rewrites history with white hands

and dirty intent.

Racism is not past tense.

It breathes.

It kneels on necks.

It cages children.

It builds systems so rigged

even ghosts of progress get shot.

It tells you it’s about merit

while robbing futures blind.

You want to know the damage?

Look at the child who no longer speaks up.

Look at the mother who’s always afraid.

Look at the man who’s never seen as a man

only as a threat.

Wars begin this way.

Empires fall this way.

People snap this way.

This isn’t just a moral crisis

it’s an extinction event in slow motion.

If we do not bury hate,

it will bury us.

Not in fire, but in silence.

Not in bombs, but in empty hearts.

Not with a scream,

but with a shrug.

We must unlearn the poison.

We must choose life over comfort,

truth over tradition,

solidarity over survival of the “fittest.”

Because the human race

won’t die from the stars falling...

It will die ..

because we refused to love what didn’t look like us ..

because we refused to love those

who believe different than us ..

because we refused to love those

that love differently than we do.

I will fight with every last breath in

my lungs, with every last word in my heart and soul.

If need be I will give myself and my

life in this battle .. but I will not give up

I will wear my queerness openly and

with pride ..

To those that speak up against

I will rise above like a Phoenix and scorch

the sky as their hate fuels the fire I have inside.

We will not stop, we will not back

down ..

You will not stop us because we are

resilient.

You have tried over and over

to wipe us out and we are still here

despite your hate.

You will not stop us because we are

stronger in truth and light than you

will ever be.

We .. will .. not .. die!!