Napowrimo day 14

An ode to the way I SHOUT

This is an ode to the way that I SHOUT
The way my voice reaches across a room
Or subway or hallway with a BOOM
This is an ode to the way I am heard
I am loud, I am proud,
I cannot be deterred

This is an ode to the way I can fill
Up a room with a sprawl,
With a SHOUT, with call
This is an ode to the way I demand
To be heard, to be seen
To have you understand

I wish you could hear that the way that I SHOUT
Has to do with my mother
And her mother too
And the way I am woman and queer and a Jew

And sometimes I SHOUT just to prove that I can
And to hear the echoes
and know someone agrees
And hear my own voice from the sky and the trees

And sometimes I SHOUT so loud that I scare
Birds out of nests
Still hardly dressed
They wave their wings, scream, and they take to the air.

Men can be startled like birds to the air
Fragile, perched on their biases
They argue with words that attack and tear
Scared by my SHOUT, so they rip me apart
But my shout remains true
Along with my heart

This is an ode to the way that I SHOUT
In my shout I pray,
Laugh, beg, and say
That I will not be silenced, I will not stop SHOUTING
Until the world hears me
Until I'm done fighting.