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"Safe Space?"

For ROCK's Unofficial Challenge in Free Verse

By Kendall Defoe Published 2 days ago Updated 2 days ago 1 min read
I feel safer already?

Link to the Challenge:

I found it on a sign in a rough part of the city

(actually not too rough),

with a broken QR code

(it did not work)

and my less than perfect French caught the gist of it...

(don't really agree with the sentiment)

There are no safe spaces and you are always being judged

(this happens because we are human and fucked up).

You see...this was on a bus stop, with graffiti and rust

(a perfect metaphor?).

The sentiment was kind, but a bad reminder of what cannot be

(every eye on you just has to give the game away).

You share with your friends - that's ammunition for them.

(Can you believe that she said that?)

Posting it online with anonymity

(You have already shared too much)

You write it down in a book, creating notes

(Wanna burn that shit one day? No?)

And then, you see that it does not exist

(It cannot exist anywhere),

not even in a home where you have your own peace and quiet

(Your thoughts are not quiet, and you are your own worst enemy).

Voices will haunt you and they will sound familiar

(The code will remain uncracked).

We need this sign.

*

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About the Creator

Kendall Defoe

Teacher, reader, writer, dreamer... I am a college instructor who cannot stop letting his thoughts end up on the page. No AI. No Fake Work. It's all me...

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